I 


SCHOOL   JANITORS 
MOTHERS  AND  HEALTH 


PUTNAM 


SCHOOL  JANITORS 
MOTHERS  AND  HEALTH 


BY 
HELEN  C.  PUTNAM,  A.B.,  M.D. 

ON  THE  TEACHING  OF  HYGIENE 


Health  Habits  educate 
more  than  Health  Maxims 


AMERICAN  ACADEMY  OF  MEDICINE  PRESS 

EASTON,  PA. 


COPYRIGHT.    1913.    BY    HELEN    C.    PUTNAM 
ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 


TO  THE 

AMERICAN  ASSOCIATION   FOR  STUDY 

AND  PREVENTION  OF  INFANT 

MORTALITY 


THE  SUREST  PREVENTION  ON  THE  LARGEST  SCALE 
IS  TO  DEVELOP  THRU  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  POTENTIAL 
FATHERS  AND  MOTHERS  WITH  WHOLESOME  BODIES, 
MINDS  AND  IDEALS 


259681 


CONTENTS 


PAGB 

AUTHOR'S  NOTE vii 

KEY-WORD ix 

I.  PREVENTION  OF  SCHOOL  FATIGUE 

October:  The  air  school   children  breathe  at 

home 11 

November:  The  air  children  breathe  at  school  .  21 

December:  Dirty  children  and  fresh  air      .        .  27 

January:  Internal  cleanliness:  carious  teeth     .  32 
February:    Internal  cleanliness:  elimination  of 

waste 37 

March:  What  and  when  school  children  should 

eat 42 

April:  Muscular  exercise  an  internal  bath  .        .  48 

May:  Idleness,  evenings,  dress,  and  cigarettes  .  53 

June:  The  Long  Vacation 58 

II.  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND  CLEAN  SCHOOL- 

HOUSES 

November:  Men  as  housekeepers       ...  61 

December:  Cleaning  floors 67 

January :  Cleaning  lavatories — the  common  cup 

and  towel — paper  ones 75 

February:  Walls  and  windows    ....  85 

March:  An  interlude — open  air  schools     .        .  93 

April:  Streets  and  housecleaning        ...  96 

May:  School  housecleaning  and  social  centers .  104 

III.  SCHOOL  JANITORS  AND  HEALTH 

October:  A  billion  dollars  and  all  our  children  .  Ill 


vi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

November :  The  great  test.  The  Boston  A.  C.  A.  117 

December:  And  Janitors'  Rules.        .       .       .  124 

January:  And  measuring  window  washing       .  128 

February:  And  "dipping" 134 

March:  Another  study  of  schoolrooms      .        .  142 

April:  Measuring  health  conditions    .        .        .  151 

May:  Dust  again 163 

June:  How  to  do  it 167 

IV.  PRACTICAL  ASPECTS  OF  BIOLOGIC 
SCIENCE  IN  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRA- 
TION: THE  PROBLEM  OF  JANITOR 
SERVICE  ....  179 
V.  THE  TRAINING  OF  JANITORS  IN  SANI- 
TARY CARE  OF  SCHOOL  PREMISES  .  189 

INDEX  195 


AUTHOR'S  NOTE 

The  main  part  of  this  little  book  appeared 
during  1909-1912  as  serials  in  Child-Welfare 
Magazine,  the  organ  of  the  National  Congress  of 
Mothers  and  Parent-Teacher  Associations.  They 
have  been  revised  and  several  additions  made 
for  the  purpose  of  increasing  their  usefulness; 
but  the  original  mission  is  retained — a  construc- 
tive appeal  to  organizations  of  mothers,  the  house- 
keepers, to  fulfill  their  responsibility  for  children's 
well-being  outside  the  walls  of  the  family  residence 
as  well  as  inside.  The  serial  form  of  publication 
makes  repetition  occasionally  desirable.  Some  of 
this  has  been  retained  with  the  hope  that  the 
emphasis  of  a  repeated  idea  may  help  produce 
results. 

There  are  also  two  papers  on  related  topics; 
one  republisht  from  Proceedings  of  the  National 
Education  Association,  the  other  from  Journal  of 
the  American  Public  Health  Association. 

I  wish  to  record  here  my  gratitude  to  Dr. 
Charles  Mclntire,  broad  minded  and  generous 
secretary  of  the  American  Academy  of  Medicine 
which  specializes  in  medical  sociology,  for  his 
cooperation  in  issuing  the  volume. 

H.  C.  P. 
Quiapen 
January  1,  1913 


Vll 


KEY-WORD 

School  is  a  part  of  life,  not  "preparation"  only, 
and  to  practice  pupils  in  standardizing  details 
affecting  health  means  improving  our  vital  sta- 
tistics— the  measure  of  a  nation's  right  living. 

Page  170 


PREVENTION  OF  SCHOOL 
FATIGUE 


The  child's  right  to  be  well  cared  for  equals  "  the  right  to 
be  well  born" 

October 

We  have  provided  schools  and  required  by 
law  or  social  custom  twenty  million  children  to 
enter  them  this  month. 

Nine  months  from  now  fifteen  millions,  more 
or  less,  will  show  various  degrees  of  nervousness 
and  pallor.  The  condition  will  be  accompanied 
in  many  instances  with  other  disorders. 

This  result  of  school  life  is  called  school  fatigue. 
It  is  a  hindrance  in  developing  the  best  kind 
of  citizens — either  physically,  or  mentally  and 
morally.  It  affects  children's  children,  and  is  a 
factor  in  "race  suicide"  and  race  deterioration. 

It  is  produced  partly  by  lack  of  proper  air, 
food,  play  and  sleep;  partly  by  neglected  physical 
defects;  partly,  too,  by  unwise  school  work  and 
unwise  home  or  other  outside  occupations. 
11 


12  PREVENTION  OF 

Evidently  parents,  educators,  school  boards  and 
other  city  fathers  are  concerned,  as  are  state  and 
federal  authorities.  Our  best  hope  lies  in  intelli- 
gent mothers  with  the  will  and  the  power  to  use 
their  intelligence. 

A  mother  can  make  no  wiser  plan  for  the  coming 
nine  months  than  to  concentrate  on  preventing 
school  fatigue  in  her  own  children;  after  them, 
in  the  children  of  the  less  fortunate,  whose  ill 
health  reacts  on  her  own  either  directly  or  in 
direct  ways.  Children  need  healthy  playmates 
and  school  companions  in  a  healthy  community. 
Some  of  the  work  required  can  be  successful  only 
by  combined  effort  of  many  mothers,  of  mothers 
and  teachers,  of  both  parents  and  school  board; 
or  other  branches  of  the  municipal  government 
may  need  to  cooperate. 


The  air  school  children  breathe  at  home 
We  have  nearly  learned  the  lesson  we  must 
all  eventually  learn,  that  open  air  is  essential  to 
steady  nerves  and  good  health.  We  are  proving 
daily  that  tuberculosis,  nervous  exhaustion  (weari- 
ness, irritability,  sleeplessness),  most  catarrhal 
conditions  (of  which  we  find  so  much  among 
children),  pneumonia,  several  contagious  diseases 
and  many  surgical  cases,  all  improve  with  "open 
air"  treatment  more  satisfactorily — open  air  and 
a  few  other  items  of  cleanliness.  Even  adenoid 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  13 

conditions  are  frequently  found  to  disappear  when 
city  children  are  removed  to  open  country  living. 

The  air  that  children  have  in  schoolrooms 
is  often  such  many  medical  inspectors,  school 
nurses  and  teachers  have  told  me  that  when  they 
begin  their  duties  in  autumn  they  have  irritated 
throats  and  other  bad  feelings  until  they  "get 
used  to  it."  Children  have  this  air  for  four,  five 
or  six  hours  daily.  The  mother  must  look  first 
to  "making  up  for  it"  so  far  as  possible  by  the 
right  conditions  out  of  school;  and  next,  to  im- 
proving the  air  in  schools. 

Odors  of  cooking,  laundering,  sleeping  rooms 
and  the  like  should  be  blown  out.  Whether  or 
not  there  is  any  chemical  harm  in  "smells," 
they  are  often  accompanied  with  dust  having  its 
pus  germs  and  occasionally,  especially  in  dwellings, 
disease  bacteria.  Probably  smells  offend  good 
taste  because  race  experience  has  found  them  very 
often  an  index  of  disease  and  unhygienic  condi- 
tions, filth-bred  insects,  mildew  and  stagnation. 
Offensive  odors  may  even  produce  nausea.  The 
mental  depression  and  irritation  from  them  dis- 
turbs health  as  well.  They  always  mean  that  the 
house  is  not  properly  ventilated. 

Dust,  too  high  temperatures  and  dryness  are 
the  commonest  faults  in  indoor  air  at  home. 
A  fourth  fault  is  something  we  have  no  good  name 
for — a  lack  of  "tone"  or  "vitality"  or  stimulus, 
some  unknown  quality  or  qualities  that  refresh 


14  PREVENTION  OF 

and  "wake  us  up"  when  we  throw  open  windows 
and  draw  long  breaths  of  outdoor  air.  On  cold 
winter  days  when  sometimes  the  heat  "doesn't 
heat,"  by  opening  the  house  for  a  minute's  swift 
flushing  with  outside  air  we  find  ourselves  warmer 
and  entirely  comfortable  soon  after. 

Some  have  offered  in  explanation  of  this  de- 
lightful quality  of  open  air  that  it  is  due  to 
oxygen  in  larger  quantities,  or  to  ozone.  Others 
claim  an  influence  from  radium,  the  interesting 
discovery  for  which  Madame  Curie  has  received 
the  Nobel  Prize.  Radium  exhibits  a  remarkable 
energy  affecting  objects  in  its  vicinity,  and  the 
question  is  whether  this  influence  from  minute 
particles  in  the  earth  may  not  give  to  outdoor 
air  some  of  its  wholesome  qualities;  and  whether 
there  are  not  still  other  substances  or  forces, 
perhaps  electric,  as  yet  unknown  that  may  do 
so.  We  have  often  thought  a  scientific  problem 
solved,  and  later  found  there  was  more  to  it. 

It  is  recently  proved  that  a  large  part  of  the 
comfort  in  open  air  is  due  to  its  constant  motion, 
much  of  which  is  cut  off  by  the  walls  of  the  house. 
One  of  the  attempts  in  ventilation  now  is  to 
supply  sufficient  motion  of  the  air  for  comfort  and 
health,  as  well  as  sufficient  humidity.  Whatever 
the  explanation  (we  shall  come  back  to  it  again), 
there  is  very  quickly  a  harmful  difference  between 
air  shut  up  and  air  free,  even  when  the  room  is  as 
well  dusted  as  possible  and  is  not  too  warm. 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  15 

The  three  objects,  then,  for  mothers  to  work 
for  at  home  are  house  air  as  free  as  possible  from 
dust,  never  above  68°  in  temperature,  and  frequently 
renewed  from  out  of  doors.  In  addition,  and  this 
is  important,  they  should  have  evaporation  of 
water,  just  short  of  steam  on  windows  in  cold 
weather,  to  provide  the  humidity  that  in  open 
air  helps  soothe  and  heal  irritated  respiratory 
passages.  Or  they  may  wish  to  measure  the 
humidity  with  a  wet-dry  bulb  thermometer  as  we 
shall  see  later  is  coming  to  be  done  in  schools. 

All  the  rooms  in  use  should  be  kept  at  as  near 
the  same  temperature  as  possible,  for  when  the  skin 
and  the  delicate  lining  of  nose  and  throat  are 
warm  and  flusht  in  a  room  of  68°,  the  sudden 
cold  of  another  room,  when  such  a  change  is 
frequently  made,  disturbs  the  circulation  and  its 
control  by  the  nervous  system  to  such  a  degree 
that  often  catarrh,  a  slight  cold,  or  even  slight 
muscular  rheumatism  follows. 

Wise  mothers  are  coming  more  and  more  to 
regulate  rooms  by  thermometers,  not  by  feelings. 
Feelings  are  extremely  unreliable.  We  have  for 
a  long  time  allowed  nurses  and  mothers  to  guess 
at  the  temperature  of  babies'  bottles  and  baths 
by  putting  the  finger  in  the  milk  or  elbow  in  the 
water.  Some  measurements  with  thermometers 
have  recently  been  made  of  actual  temperatures 
after  nurses  have  done  their  best  with  "feelings," 
and  not  once  did  they  agree.  The  temperature 


16  PREVENTION  OF 

of  babies'  food  is  very  important  indeed.  Even  the 
cooling  that  goes  on  between  the  time  the  bottle 
is  given  the  baby  and  the  time  he  finishes  it  may 
make  the  difference  between  a  well  and  an  ill  baby. 

The  temperature  of  the  rooms  at  home  is  just 
as  important  to  school  children.  I  went  into  the 
library  last  night  where  my  little  sister  had  been 
quietly  reading  for  an  hour  beside  the  light  wood 
fire  on  the  hearth  to  take  off  the  first  touch  of 
October  f rostiness.  "  It  is  stifling  here."  "  Why, 
I  was  just  feeling  shivery  and  wanting  my  scarf! " 
The  thermometer  read  seventy-six.  That  is  a 
universal  experience,  and  a  common — perhaps  the 
commonest  source  of  "colds,"  paving  the  way 
to  tuberculosis.  Thermometers  should  be  kept 
steadily  between  65°  and  68° — lower  rather  than 
higher.  If  there  is  any  discomfort,  remove  it  in 
other  ways  than  by  excessive  heat. 

Wise  mothers  are  coming  also  to  have  no 
carpets;  to  have,  instead,  rugs  not  too  heavy  for 
a  woman  to  lift  and  to  hang  on  a  clothesline  or 
rope,  to  be  thoroly  beaten  free  from  dust  and 
aired.  For  walls,  floors  and  furnishings  they  are 
coming  to  use  dust  cloths  that  hold  the  dust 
instead  of  scattering  it;  to  have  windows  and 
outside  doors  open  while  wiping  it  up  so  that  as 
much  as  possible  may  blow  out  of  the  room. 
They  are  beginning  to  insist  that  architects  shall 
not  plan  the  fresh  air  box  of  the  furnace  to  open 
on  the  dusty  side  of  the  house,  perhaps  the  street 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  17 

or  a  corner  receiving  its  dust  directly.  Some  ask 
"  Why  not  two  air  boxes,  so  that  we  can  close  the 
dusty  side  on  windy  days?"  They  are  keeping 
the  hot  air  pipes  from  the  furnace  free  from 
dust  and  the  lining  of  the  furnace  in  perfect  re- 
pair so  that  gas  and  dust  cannot  escape  into  the 
rooms,  and  closing  registers  when  ashes  are  be- 
ing disturbed  in  the  furnace  below.  They  have 
fewer  ornaments,  heavy  window  draperies,  por- 
tieres and  upholstered  furnishings,  all  being  dust 
promoters. 


Ideal  sleeping  room 

The  most  generous  provision  of  good  air  can 
be  in  the  sleeping  room,  where  the  school  child 
spends  nine  hours  every  day.  Here  is  the  ideal 
during  the  coming  nine  months,  below  the  latitude 
of  Albany,  and  even  above  for  hardy  children; 
sleeping  room — not  dressing  room. 

Choose  a  small  corner  room  with  two  windows, 
one  toward  the  south,  both  over  grass  and  trees, 
not  over  the  street;  literally  nothing  but  the  bed 
in  the  room,  or  two  or  three  single  beds  for  others; 
nothing  on  the  floor  and  walls,  no  draperies  at 
the  windows,  unless  a  plain  holland  shade  "for 
looks"  in  the  daytime;  one  sash  in  each  window 
always  open  its  full  extent  day  and  night,  the 
fly  screens  in  to  keep  out  snow  or  rain;  if  a  storm 
makes  it  necessary  the  blinds  may  be  closed, 
2 


18  PREVENTION  OF 

but  not  the  window.  There  may  be  a  very  few 
days  when  on  account  of  blowing  dust  or  intense 
cold  one  of  the  two  windows  should  be  closed, 
but  the  southern  sash  should  never  be;  in  fact, 
both  southern  sashes  could  be  taken  out  alto- 
gether, and  usually  are,  the  screen  being  made  to 
fill  the  whole  window. 

Place  the  bed  out  of  direct  drafts,  with  head 
against  an  inner  wall;  furnish  it  with  a  hair 
mattress,  cotton  or  outing  flannel  or  woolen 
sheets,  according  to  the  weather,  being  sure  that 
the  mattress  is  warm  enough  or  has  an  extra 
warm  pad  over  it  so  that  no  possible  chill  can  be 
felt  from  underneath;  use  woolen  blankets,  or 
for  very  cold  weather  a  down  puff  which  gives 
warmth  without  so  much  weight.  The  weight 
of  many  covers  may  cause  the  sleeper  to  awake 
feeling  tired  instead  of  rested.  The  covers  dur- 
ing daytime  should  be  kept  folded  over  the  foot 
of  the  bed,  leaving  it  open  to  air  and  sunshine. 
In  very  cold  weather  one  or  two  hot  soapstones 
or  hot  flatirons  (better  than  water  bottles)  wrapt 
in  woolen  (a  bag  is  convenient)  should  be  placed 
in  the  middle  and  bottom  of  the  bed  before  bed- 
time. If  in  woolen  they  will  keep  warm  all 
night. 

The  child  should  wear  pajamas  covering  the 
feet,  of  outing  flannel,  or  woolen  in  the  coldest 
weather,  with  a  cotton  or  flannel  cap  or  hood 
coming  over  the  forehead  in  the  very  coldest 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  19 

weather,  its  cape  extending  down  the  back  to 
the  shoulders.  Sleeping  bags  are  usually  not 
liked,  altho  travellers  in  northern  lands  cannot 
get  along  without  them,  and  I  will  not  describe 
them  here. 

This  is  ideal  because  it  is  genuine  outdoor  air 
for  nine  in  twenty-four  hours.  An  upper  piazza 
would  be  quite  as  good  or  better,  with  screens 
to  cut  off  winds,  and  ingenuity  and  good  sense  in 
using  it. 

Such  sleeping  will  result  in  appetites  for 
breakfast,  much  less  susceptibility  to  "colds" 
thruout  the  winter,  brighter  color  and  steadier 
nerves  next  June,  and  the  love  of  cleanliness 
that  only  habits  of  cleanliness  can  create.  When 
mothers  sympathize  understandingly  with  this 
ideal  (I  know  several  who  have  realized  it)  they 
will  find  ways  to  overcome  difficulties  until  something 
for  their  children  results  nearer  it  than  exists  at 
present  for  those  fifteen  millions  about  whom  we 
are  thinking. 


Basement 

One  more  place  in  a  home  that  may  make  it 
unwholesome,  no  matter  how  well  the  foregoing 
points  are  attended  to,  is  the  cellar.  The  air 
of  the  basement  penetrates  the  whole  house, 
either  between  partitions  not  closed  at  the  bot- 
tom, or  thru  cracks  in  floors  and  around  doors, 


20  PREVENTION  OF 

or  thru  imperfect  furnace  flues  or  cold  air  cham- 
bers. It  must  be  kept  sweet  and  sanitary  by 
whitewashings,  ventilating  thru  open  windows, 
and  positively  refusing  to  allow  odors  of  any  kind 
in  it. 


Mothers'  clubs 

With  the  determination  to  bring  to  pass  an 
intelligent  ideal  great  improvements  are  possible; 
but  finally  we  come  to  the  hard  fact  that  many 
houses  and  streets  make  wholesome  air  impossible. 
This  is  the  point  where  motherhood  itself  drives 
women  out  of  their  private  homes  into  combina- 
tions of  efforts  for  better  enforcement  of  better 
laws  for  the  sake  of  the  children.  The  mother 
who  has  done  wisely  for  her  own  must,  even  still 
for  the  sake  of  her  own,  help  other  mothers'  chil- 
dren. In  schools  so  full  as  ours  the  unhealthy 
child  influences  the  healthy  in  many  ways. 

It  is  not  possible  here  to  say  all  that  needs  say- 
ing concerning  the  importance  of  outdoor  air  for 
children,  and  the  harmfulness  of  the  ordinary 
over-heated  house  air.  So  much — so  very  much 
depends  on  convincing  mothers  of  this,  that  mothers' 
clubs  in  every  city  would  be  doing  a  public 
service  this  autumn  if  they  would  provide  two 
or  three  open  discussions  on  the  subject.  A 
speaker  who  has  an  up-to-date  scientific  training 
can  make  it  very  impressive  and  interesting. 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  21 

November 

The  air  children  breathe  at  school 

To  keep  the  air  in  schoolhouses  healthful  is 
a  more  difficult  problem.  Like  the  air  at  home, 
it  must  be  between  65°  and  68°,  comparatively 
free  from  dust  and  frequently  renewed  from  out 
of  doors. 

How  to  clear  away  the  material  thrown  into 
the  air  from  so  many  bodies  in  rooms  not  pro- 
portionally as  large  as  the  rooms  at  home  is 
one  problem  to  solve.  Another  is  how  to  keep 
floors,  walls  and  furnishings  free  from  dirt  brought 
in  on  shoes  and  clothing,  and  created  by  the  use 
of  chalk  and  in  some  other  ways. 

Until  intelligent  women  are  on  school  com- 
mittees concerned  with  school  cleanliness  the 
present  conditions  are  likely  to  show  little  im- 
provement. What  they  are  is  indicated  not  only 
by  the  statements  last  month,  but  by  statistics 
in  the  Census  showing  that  the  average  death 
rate  from  tuberculosis  among  teachers  is  con- 
siderably higher  than  the  average  death  rate 
from  tuberculosis  in  all  occupations.  The  Cen- 
sus also  gives  figures  showing  that  tuberculosis 
among  children  increases  all  thru  school  years. 
There  is  one  kind  of  public  school  where  this 
is  not  true.  The  statistics  of  open  air  schools 
show  that  it  not  only  does  not  increase,  but  is 
actually  prevented  when  feared,  and  cured  in 
children  where  it  is  known  to  have  begun.  The 


22  PREVENTION  OF 

very  first  duty  for  mothers  is  to  help  bring 
the  present  health  record  of  public  schools  up 
to  the  level  of  the  record  of  open  air  schools. 
It  is  very  largely  a  matter  of  good  housekeeping 
which  is  their  field. 

Mothers  in  unofficial  capacities  can  do  some 
things  to  bring  about  better  conditions.  By 
visiting  schools  in  one's  own  city  and  making 
written  memoranda  of  special  details  (I  shall  tell 
later  just  how  certain  women  have  done  it  admira- 
bly), a  collection  of  facts  can  be  secured  that  will 
be  useful,  supplemented  by  our  vital  statistics, 
in  pressing  a  public  demand  for  improvement  in 
common  housekeeping  in  schools. 

The  Republicans  or  the  Democrats,  whichever 
party  controls  the  schools,  will  of  course  object 
at  first.  They  will  say  that  things  are  all  right 
as  they  are,  and  this  can  be  disproved  promptly 
by  the  vital  statistics  and  local  details  gathered. 
Next  they  will  urge  that  there  is  no  money,  and 
tabs  will  have  to  be  kept  on  their  spendings. 
It  will  almost  always  be  easy  to  prove  plenty  of 
money,  but  that  it  is  misspent  on  objects  much 
less  important  than  the  health  of  potential 
fathers  and  mothers. 


Dust  and  odors 

Is  the  floor  clean?     Janitors  and  school  men's 
standards  of  cleanliness   are   not   those   of   the 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  23 

careful  housewife  for  her  bare  floors.  I  have 
heard  of  a  club  of  women  who  obtained  permission 
to  keep  one  school  building  clean.  It  became 
an  object  lesson  of  another  complexion  and  odor; 
but  the  women  had  to  continue  the  work  in 
order  to  continue  the  improvement. 

Is  the  dust  removed  after  the  "dustless  method" 
necessary  at  home?  If  not,  it  is  imperative  to 
bring  it  about  promptly.  This  means  vigorous 
and  faithful  effort  until  feather  dusters  are  re- 
placed by  cloths  used  so  as  not  to  scatter  the 
dust,  with  open  windows  allowing  as  much  as 
possible  to  blow  out,  and  certainly  not  within  one 
hour  before  the  assembling  of  pupils.  I  know 
a  university  man  who  led  a  movement  to  have 
little  girls  come  to  school  early  in  the  morning, 
poor  things,  to  dust  the  school  room  in  order  to 
"teach  them  hygiene"!  Another  formed  street 
cleaning  clubs  to  pick  up  the  dirty  papers  and 
put  them  in  boxes ! ! 

Are  cloakrooms  ventilated  out  of  doors,  not 
into  schoolrooms?  Is  the  basement  clean  and 
fresh  smelling  in  all  its  divisions?  If  not,  it  must 
be  kept  so  equally  with  the  basement  of  the  good 
housewife.  Are  the  water-closets,  both  boys'  and 
girls',  as  clean  and  fresh  as  those  in  healthful 
homes?  Odors  of  disinfectants  must  not  be  ac- 
cepted as  proof  of  cleanliness.  They  merely  dis- 
guise other  odors,  like  perfumery.  Cleanliness  has 
no  odor.  I  know  an  expensive  normal  school 


24  PREVENTION  OF 

that  greets  its  visitors  with  the  smell  of  a  certain 
patented  cleansing  fluid  used  in  wiping  the  floors, 
training  teachers  of  the  future  in  this  standard 
for  fresh  air.  Normal  schools  should  not  be  neg- 
lected in  the  visiting. 

Perhaps  a  school  will  be  found  with  basement 
playrooms.  I  have  never  seen  one  that  was 
not  extremely  dusty,  especially  the  floor — which 
means  the  air.  They  are  avowedly  intended  for 
rainy  days;  but  are  very  frequently  used  for  any 
days  or  merely  misty  and  damp  ones,  with  or 
without  the  knowledge  of  teachers.  There  are 
some  schools  that  have  no  outdoor  recesses. 
Parents  should  keep  their  children  away  from 
these  schools,  secure  mothers*  and  all  other  clubs 
possible  to  appeal  to  school  authorities,  write 
to  the  papers,  hold  public  meetings,  and  persist 
until  outdoor  recesses  are  establisht.  Roofs 
are  sometimes  fitted  up  for  playgrounds,  neigh- 
boring vacant  lots  rented  or  loaned.  As  a  last 
resort,  abandon  the  school  entirely,  and  build 
one  somewhere  else  in  the  midst  of  a  five  acre  lot, 
where  school  gardens,  playgrounds,  green  grass 
and  trees,  can  restore  to  children  some  of  their 
rights;  then  furnish  free  transportation,  by  street 
cars  or  school  omnibus,  as  private  schools  and 
rural  communities  are  doing.  We  occupy  but  a 
very  small  fraction  of  our  great  territory.  It  is 
not  necessity,  it  is  neglect  and  indifference  that 
is  depriving  children  of  mother  nature's  whole- 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  25 

some,  healing,  inspiring  face — crowding  them  off 
the  surface  of  the  earth  rather  too  literally.  See 
mortality  statistics,  Bureau  of  the  Census. 


Chalk  and  ventilating  systems 

Chalk  dust  can  best  be  prevented  by  not  using 
chalk.  If  that  cannot  be  at  once  brought  about, 
moist  wipers  must  be  used  and  not  allowed  when 
dry  to  scatter  dust.  Dry  chalk  erasers  are  as 
necessary  to  do  away  with  as  feather  dusters. 

Perhaps  in  the  visiting  a  school  will  be  found 
with  a  system  of  ventilation  that  does  not  allow 
windows  to  be  opened.  One  should  notice  how 
the  air  compares  with  outside  air;  should  learn 
how  teachers  and  others  like  it  after  long  hours 
in  it;  how  the  "system"  is  run.  If  its  right 
working  depends  on  the  attention  of  some  person, 
one  may  be  assured  from  the  experiences  of  very 
many  people  that  the  fallibility  in  all  personal 
service  extends  to  this  ventilating  system,  and 
the  children  are  helpless  victims.  The  Key-word 
of  this  little  book  shows  the  way  out.  Almost 
all  heating  systems  have  not  only  air  supply 
from  out  of  doors,  but  also  can  connect  with  base- 
ment air  when  wanted.  At  night  the  open  air 
in-take  is  shut  off  and  basement  air  is  sent  to 
rooms  instead,  because  less  fuel  is  required  to 
heat  it.  No  one  knows  just  how  often  on  "cold" 
(how  cold?)  days,  or  when  fire  or  fuel  is  low, 


26  PREVENTION  OF 

basement  air  is  sent  up  to  the  rooms.  It  belongs 
to  a  sanitarian  to  decide,  or  to  an  intelligent  care- 
taker of  children.  The  practice  of  warming  the 
rooms  with  basement  air  out  of  school  hours 
helps  explain  why  buildings  unused  so  many  hours 
out  of  the  twenty-four  and  out  of  the  week  smell 
so  stale.  They  need  fresh  air  almost  as  much  as 
children's  lungs. 

We  have  been  drifting  into  artificiality,  into 
"just-as-good"  ideals,  and  only  lately  are  coming 
to  realize  we  cannot  be  a  healthy  people  until  we 
get  back  to  clean  air,  clean  water,  clean  foods, 
bodies  and  lives — the  simple  life.  I  am  not  sure 
that  any  "system"  is  preferable  to  direct  open 
air  in  school.  We  are  all  sure  that  open  country 
air  is  best  for  children.  The  conclusion  is  too 
obvious  to  state.  Mothers'  clubs  must  help 
study  out  ways  and  means — study  out,  not  guess 
out. 


And  janitors 

Has  the  janitor  passed  a  civil  service  examina- 
tion in  school  sanitation?  Possibly  he  has  taken 
an  examination,  but  if  it  is  found,  on  looking 
over  the  questions,  that  they  relate  to  running 
the  heating  apparatus  chiefly,  or  do  not  include 
questions  testing  substantial  understanding  of 
"cleaning  house,"  there  is  a  place  to  begin  im- 
provements. Neither  superintendent  nor  jani- 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  27 

tor  can  keep  school  air  fresh  with  good  intentions; 
they  must  know  and  use  the  proper  methods  for 
doing  so. 

Mothers'  clubs  may  find  it  necessary  to  estab- 
lish classes  for  training  janitors  in  housewifery. 
Their  salaries  rival  or  exceed  the  salaries  of  teach- 
ers who  are  required  to  have  extensive  preparation 
for  no  more  important  service  in  kindergarten, 
primary  and  other  grades.  Clubs  will  better 
understand  needs  and  ways  of  helping  if  they  will 
compare  their  facts  and  ideas  with  school  physi- 
cian and  school  nurse  in  heart-to-heart  talks; 
but  even  these  officials  must  be  kept  up  to  the 
cherishing  ideals  of  motherhood.  Mothers  can- 
not shirk  their  responsibilities  on  "paid  workers" 
if  the  human  race  is  to  attain  its  best. 

It  probably  occurs  to  some  readers,  I  hope  it 
does,  that  in  this  matter  of  housecleaning  in 
public  schools  much  better  than  a  man  might 
be  a  woman  as  superintendent  of  such  work;  not 
any  good  woman,  but  one  who  is  either  a  graduate 
in  nursing  or  in  home  economics,  with  a  scientific 
conscience  and  technical  training  in  sanitation. 


December 

Dirty  children  and  fresh  air 
Unclean    bodies    and    clothing    contribute    as 
much  to  school  fatigue  as  an  unclean  house,  both 


28  PREVENTION  OF 

at  home  and  at  school.  They  produce  physical 
ailments  and  mental  lassitude  in  two  ways: 
by  befouling  the  air  that  all  in  the  room  must 
breathe,  and  by  depressing  the  child's  own 
vitality  through  lack  of  a  needed  nerve  tonic — 
the  right  sort  of  bath. 

If  some  chemical  were  poured  over  the  human 
body  that  would  destroy  all  of  it  except  the 
nervous  system,  we  would  have  remaining  an 
almost  perfect  model  of  it,  a  lacelike  structure, 
apparently  made  of  innumerable  white  threads 
running  into  larger  and  larger  cords  and  finally 
to  the  brain.  So  closely  alongside  each  other  do 
the  finest  white  threads  start  from  the  skin  on 
their  way  to  the  brain  that  in  many  places  a  pin 
point  can  hardly  be  past  between  them.  These 
nerves  are  like  telegraph  wires  carrying  news  to 
the  brain  and  messages  back. 

The  best  part  of  bathing  is  its  effect  on  nerves 
and  brain.  More  people  need  to  appreciate  that 
the  right  kind  of  bath  is  an  ideal  tonic.  The 
warm  bath  with  soap  removes  dirt  and  perspira- 
tion (waste  poured  out  of  the  body  on  the  skin), 
and  the  rubbing  over  these  thousands  of  nerve 
endings  in  the  skin  sends  messages  along  them, 
resulting  in  dilating  blood  vessels  in  the  skin, 
making  it  warmer  and  withdrawing  this  blood 
from  other  parts.  It  draws  some  of  it  from  the 
brain  leaving  the  brain  in  a  better  condition  for 
sleep  than  work.  Brain  like  muscle  must  have 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  29 

an  extra  supply  of  blood  when  it  works.  There- 
fore this  is  the  kind  of  bath  to  take  before  sleep. 

But  when  energy  is  wanted,  whether  of  brain 
or  body,  cold  on  these  nerve  endings  is  the  stimu- 
lus to  apply,  cold  that  is  cold  enough  to  make  a 
little  gasp  for  breath  as  it  flashes  over  face,  chest 
and  neck,  and  down  the  back.  This  is  the 
"tonic"  to  be  taken  in  the  morning  before  the 
day's  work. 

The  "cold  tonic"  is  not  for  cleanliness,  but  for 
vigor.  It  clears  the  brain  and  body  of  the  last 
remnants  of  sleep,  helps  cure  cold  feet  and 
improves  the  circulation  in  other  ways,  steadies 
nerves,  and  is,  like  open  windows  at  night,  a  fine 
appetizer.  It  should  be  taken  in  a  warm  room 
(70°  to  75°).  If  "the  bathroom  cannot  be  made 
warm  so  early  in  the  morning"  by  furnace  heat, 
use  a  gas  radiator  for  ten  minutes.  It  makes  the 
air  bad;  but  the  value  of  the  tonic  exceeds  the 
harm  done  in  only  ten  minutes. 

The  tonic  bath  need  not  exceed  one  minute. 
A  warm  bath  in  the  morning  should  always  be 
followed  by  the  cold  dash  on  face,  chest  and 
especially  on  the  back.  When  accustomed  to  it 
one's  body  cries  out  for  it  as  it  calls  for  water  when 
thirsty.  The  tonic  may  be  taken  without  the 
warm  bath,  of  course.  When  the  child  is  not 
accustomed  to  it,  begin  by  a  dash  of  cold  water 
over  face  and  chest  while  standing  in  the  tub. 
Dry  at  once,  rubbing  warm;  next  day  try  a 


30  PREVENTION  OF 

quart,  dasht  over  face  and  chest  and  down  the 
back  along  the  spine.  This  should  be  as  cold  as 
the  faucet  will  give.  If  the  child  does  not  like 
it  persevere  in  this  without  increasing  for  a  while. 
As  soon  as  a  dash  of  cold  water  all  over  can  be 
taken,  the  "morning  tonic" — the  best  one  in  the 
world — is  assured. 

If  there  is  not  time  for  this  morning  dash  and 
rub  before  school  the  remedy  is  to  retire  earlier 
at  night  and  get  up  earlier  in  the  morning.  It 
is  not  to  omit  the  tonic.  The  child's  vigor  is  worth 
it. 

Children's  clothing  absorbs  odors  from  their 
bodies  and  from  rooms,  especially  odors  of  cook- 
ing and  tobacco.  Entirely  different  clothing 
should  be  used  for  sleeping,  especially  the  under- 
vest;  and  all  the  day  clothing  should  be  spread 
out  on  a  line  or  on  chairs  in  the  open  air  sleeping 
room  for  ventilation.  In  the  morning  it  should 
be  entirely  free  from  odors,  and  can  be  warmed 
while  the  bath  is  going  on.  A  very  considerable 
part  of  the  offensive  odors  in  all  schools  comes 
from  unclean  clothing. 

Mothers  having  taken  these  measures  for 
conserving  strength  and  happiness  in  their 
dearest  must  next  seek  methods  for  helping  those 
less  cared  for,  whose  neglect  is  befouling  school- 
room air.  Clubs  can  help  greatly  by  learning 
how  school  baths  and  other  city  baths  are  provided 
in  some  places,  and  popularizing  the  idea  at  home. 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  31 

The  very  best  thing  for  a  school  is  to  have  a 
swimming  tank,  its  own  or  a  suitable  one  else- 
where. Sometimes  a  swimming  tank  has  been 
presented  as  a  memorial  to  a  pupil  or  instructor. 
A  mothers'  club  might  do  this  in  the  name  of 
one  whom  it  wisht  to  honor.  Here  cleanliness, 
a  tonic,  and  the  art  by  which  one's  own  life  and  the 
lives  of  others  may  be  preserved  from  death  by 
drowning  are  secured  all  in  one,  together  with  an 
ideal  physical  exercise  ("gymnastics")  for  devel- 
oping heart  and  lungs.  The  better  heart  and 
lungs  in  a  child,  the  less  school  fatigue  and  the 
longer  life  is  assured.  Many  English  schools 
have  swimming,  as  ours  ought  to  have. 

In  looking  further  into  this  subject  mothers  will 
find  very  useful  information  in  Public  Baths  in  the 
United  States,  by  G.  W.  W.  Hanger,  Bulletin  of 
the  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  54,  September,  1904. 
It  is  a  part  of  the  exhibit  of  the  Bureau  at  the 
Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition.  Possibly  it  is 
one  of  the  Government  publications  that  is  for 
free  distribution.  Address  the  Government  Print- 
ing Office  at  Washington.  There  is  also  an 
interesting  English  book,  Modern  Baths  and 
Bath  Houses,  by  W.  Paul  Gerhard,  C.  E.,  pub- 
lisht  in  1908.  Brookline,  Massachusetts,  has 
one  of  the  best  public  baths  for  children  and 
others.  It  is  described  in  American  Public 
Health  Association  Journal,  1897.  There  are  also 
many  other  recent  reports  on  baths  for  schools 


32  PREVENTION  OF 

which  can  be  found  by  consulting  the  librarian 
at  the  public  library.  It  would  be  a  great 
mistake  to  do  anything  without  reading  up  on  the 
matter,  for  there  are  many  "new  ideas,*'  as,  for 
example,  that  bathtubs  should  not  be  provided, 
because  they  are  not  kept  clean.  Instead,  spray,  or 
"rain,"  or  "needle"  baths  are  best  where  the 
spray  comes  from  the  side,  not  from  above — wet- 
ting the  hair.  The  best  of  all,  however,  is  a  swim- 
ming pool. 

The  justification  for  clubs  in  these  strenuous 
days  is  performance  as  well  as  papers.  Where 
one  has  helpt  provide  a  swimming  tank  for  boys 
and  girls  all  the  seasons  thru,  there  will  be  more 
of  health,  morals,  life  and  joy  in  that  community 
thereafter. 


January 

Internal  cleanliness:  carious  teeth 

Probably  more  than  ninety  out  of  every  hundred 
children  have  decaying  teeth.  This  means  offen- 
sive breath,  increasing  the  bad  air  of  school 
rooms. 

It  means  much  more  to  the  children  having 
them,  and  is  one  of  the  most  serious  as  well  as 
common  causes  of  school  fatigue  and  various 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  33 

forms  of  ill  health.  The  decaying  spots  are 
nests  of  decomposing  food  and  disease  producing 
bacteria.  These  and  bacterial  toxins  (poisons) 
swallowed  undermine  the  general  health,  and 
cause  other  troubles  about  the  throat  and  nose. 
The  poisons  spread  from  teeth  to  neighboring 
glands  and  openings,  causing  earache,  enlarged 
glands,  catarrh,  as  well  as  tender  gums  and 
"toothache."  The  poisonous  condition  of  the 
mouth  aggravates  the  results  of  scarlet  fever  or 
any  other  illness,  and  increases  the  danger  of  ear 
complications. 

Swallowing  these  virulent  poisons  impairs 
digestion,  and  anemia  is  almost  always  found  with 
carious  teeth.  Nutrition  being  poor  from  indiges- 
tion, even  if  good  food  is  given,  tuberculosis  and 
other  diseases  find  an  easier  victim.  The  pain 
of  chewing  food  when  the  mouth  is  uncomfortable 
causes  children  to  swallow  without  chewing  as 
they  ought,  thus  increasing  indigestion  and  form- 
ing a  bad  habit  for  life. 

In  these  ways  physical  growth  is  impaired,  the 
nervous  system  becomes  more  irritable,  mental 
development  is  hindered.  Just  as  good  care 
should  be  taken  of  the  first  teeth  as  of  the  per- 
manent ones,  not  only  for  the  sake  of  the  general 
health,  but  because  their  condition  affects  the 
development  of  the  jaw  and  of  the  permanent 
teeth  coming  in  the  same  places. 


34  PREVENTION  OF 

Causes  of  carious  teeth 

When  the  health  of  the  mother  is  poor  before 
the  child  is  born,  or  if  syphilis  is  inherited,  or 
if  the  health  of  the  child  is  poor,  poor  teeth 
usually  result.  Poor  teeth  are  also  the  result  of 
neglect  to  clean  away  food  particles  before  they 
begin  to  decompose.  Certain  substances,  espe- 
cially acids,  injure  the  teeth;  also  ice  water  and 
very  hot  fluids.  These  same  very  hot  and  very 
cold  temperatures  injure  the  stomach  as  well. 

Lack  of  exercise  is  bad  for  the  teeth,  the  exer- 
cise of  chewing  hard  food.  The  hard  particles 
polish  the  teeth,  and  the  firm  pressure  in  chewing 
develops  the  jaws,  increasing  circulation  to  the 
roots  of  the  teeth,  by  which  their  nutrition  is 
improved.  When  teeth  do  not  meet  properly 
indigestion  sometimes  results  from  insufficient 
mastication  and  the  teeth  will  decay  more  easily. 
It  is  probably  because  the  jaws  are  not  developt 
as  they  should  be,  and  such  children  should  be 
taken  to  a  good  dentist  who  can  alter  the  condi- 
tion when  the  child  is  young,  greatly  to  the 
advantage  of  both  health  and  looks. 


Prevention 

Children  must  form  the  habit  of  using  their 
toothbrushes  and  quill  toothpicks  in  the  privacy 
of  their  own  rooms;  the  splinters  that  break  from 
wooden  toothpicks  make  them  less  desirable. 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  35 

If  mothers  themselves  are  really  in  earnest  and 
convinced  of  the  importance  of  saving  the  teeth, 
they  can  make  their  children  so.  Otherwise 
nothing  in  a  magazine  or  book  can  do  it.  The 
children  must  suffer  the  consequences.  Mothers' 
clubs  have  a  responsibility  for  creating  this 
intelligence  thruout  their  communities. 

In  these  days  of  breakfast  foods  and  other 
prepared  foods  too  little  real  chewing  is  done. 
Pains  should  be  taken  to  provide  some  hard  and 
tough  food,  and  to  insist  on  its  being  chewed 
until  in  a  fluid  state  when  it  "swallows  itself." 
This  is  not  easy  when  the  habit  of  "bolting" 
food  and  drink  is  establisht;  but  it  is  worth 
much  effort,  for  a  good  digestion  is  one  of  the 
best  preventives  of  intemperance  and  other 
manifestations  of  ill  health.  Perseverance  pays 
in  this.  I  know  a  mother  who  never  gives  her 
children  anything  to  eat  between  meals  unless 
they  are  hungry  enough  to  eat  a  crust — for  the 
teeth's  sake. 

School  dentists  should  be  in  every  school 
quite  as  much  as  medical  inspectors.  The 
dentist  will  have  even  more  work  to  do,  since 
hardly  three  in  a  hundred  mouths  do  not  need 
attention.  For  several  years  they  have  been 
appointed  in  Germany;  also  in  England  and  other 
European  countries  more  recently.  We  are 
later  in  taking  it  up;  but  have  begun  to  appoint 
them,  and  each  year  their  number  is  greater. 


36  PREVENTION  OF 

Many  schools  where  there  is  none  stand  waiting 
for  the  impulse  from  mothers'  clubs  which  could 
render  few  great  services  so  easily.  An  open 
meeting  with  a  talk  by  an  efficient  dentist,  and 
physician  or  school  inspector,  followed  up  later 
by  a  little  tactful  pushing  can  hardly  fail  to  get 
dental  school  inspection  establisht,  with  provision 
for  children  too  poor  to  have  the  necessary  work 
done,  just  as  children's  eyes  are  cared  for  when 
parents  cannot  to  it.  Teachers  must  be  informed 
and  interested,  as  their  cooperation  is  of  the 
greatest  value.  No  child  can  do  its  best  with  a 
septic  mouth,  and  it  is  wholly  worth  while  for 
society  to  save  itself  from  poor  citizens  by  pre- 
venting their  development. 

If  toothbrushes  are  not  a  success  at  home,  in 
some  schools  a  rack  and  brush  bearing  the  same 
number  are  given  the  child,  and  he  is  required 
to  use  the  brush  in  the  morning  and  at  noon. 
Bu/t  this  is  a  pity;  cannot  the  visiting  nurse 
bring  it  about  at  home?  It  is  most  important  to 
clean  the  teeth  thoroly  at  bedtime.  One  simple 
help  in  keeping  the  mouth  as  it  should  be  is  the 
habit  of  drinking  a  little  water  at  the  end  of  the 
meal.  The  last  word  given  out  by  nose  and  throat 
specialists  of  which  I  have  heard  is  that  probably 
very  many  more  of  our  illnesses  come  from  bad 
mouths  and  teeth  than  we  have  thus  far  known. 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  37 

February 

Internal  cleanliness:  elimination  of  waste 

The  waste  in  the  large  intestine,  after  the 
nourishing  parts  of  food  have  been  absorbed  into 
the  body  thru  the  walls  of  stomach  and  small 
intestine,  is  sometimes  compared  to  the  ashes, 
vapor  and  gases  given  off  by  a  steam  engine 
using  coal  and  water  for  "food"  to  supply  its 
working  power.  In  the  body  other  waste  also 
results  from  using  up  parts  of  itself  in  muscular 
and  mental  work;  a  portion  of  the  food  eaten 
goes  to  restoring  these  parts. 

Unless  the  waste  is  cleared  away  it  "clogs  the 
system,'*  doing  harm  by  pressure  of  the  mass  of 
waste  on  surrounding  parts,  or  by  acting  as  a  slow 
poison.  In  these  and  other  ways  constipation 
becomes  one  of  the  common  causes  of  school 
fatigue.  The  waste  is  eliminated  chiefly  thru 
the  intestine,  kidneys,  lungs  and  skin.  For  the 
lungs  and  skin  cool  fresh  air,  water  and  exercise 
have  been  mentioned  as  essential  to  health. 
They  are  also  essential  in  keeping  kidneys  and 
intestine  in  order.  These  are  like  all  parts  of  the 
body  under  control  of  the  nervous  system;  so 
that  whatever  helps  maintain  a  healthy  nervous 
system  helps  very  much  both  kidneys  and  intestine 
in  doing  their  work. 


38  PREVENTION  OF 

Watery  food  and  habit 

Pure  water  at  the  natural  temperature,  not 
iced,  can  hardly  be  drunk  too  freely  if  thirsted  for, 
specially  by  a  child  who  perspires  considerably. 
It  should,  however,  be  taken  between  meals,  not 
in  large  quantities  with  them,  and  should  never 
be  "bolted." 

Properly  taken  it  "flushes  out"  the  system, 
chiefly  thru  the  kidneys;  but  also  thru  the 
intestine,  as  well  as  lungs  and  skin.  One  common 
cause  of  constipation  is  too  dry  feces,  requiring 
straining  at  stool.  A  glass  of  water  (in  winter 
it  may  be  hot  if  preferred)  taken,  a  few  swallows 
at  a  time,  while  dressing  in  the  morning  or  while 
undressing  at  night,  sometimes  prevents  constipa- 
tion. Three  or  four  glasses  more  are  needed 
during  the  day.  A  tablespoonful  of  wet  flaxseed, 
taken  at  night,  is  an  old  fashioned  and  perfectly 
harmless  way  of  "oiling"  the  intestinal  tract,  so 
that  dry  hard  stools  may  slip  along  more  easily. 

Fruits  and  nuts,  the  choice  of  which  depends 
partly  on  the  child,  should  be  used  freely.  Prunes 
and  figs,  either  cookt  or  eaten  as  confectionery, 
are  well  known  helps.  Apples  are  often  good. 
Bananas,  if  ripe,  are  good;  if  not  ripe  they  can  be 
baked  in  the  skin  or  peeled  and  baked  with  a 
sauce  of  sugar,  lemon  juice  and  butter.  Many 
who  cannot,  or  think  they  cannot  use  bananas, 
find  the  cookt  banana  excellent.  It  often  agrees 
with  very  "difficult"  stomachs.  Fruits  and 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  39 

vegetables  help  because  of  their  salts  and  acids 
especially.  A  diet  should  be  varied  from  day  to 
day  in  preventing  constipation  that  is  obstinate. 
The  use  of  molasses  is  also  recommended. 

General  suggestions  such  as  these  have  a 
general  value;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that 
each  child  has  his  own  peculiarities  that  should 
be  consulted  in  establishing  the  habit  that  is 
imperative — a  daily  evacuation  of  the  bowels. 
One  most  important  aid  is  a  regular  hour  daily. 
Habit  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  perhaps 
unappreciated  factors  in  living — habits  of  body, 
habits  of  acting,  habits  of  thinking.  The  child 
trained  to  empty  the  bowel  after  breakfast  has 
regularly  at  that  hour  the  intestinal  sensation 
impelling  him  to  do  so.  If,  however,  he  restrains 
this,  the  next  day  it  is  much  less  or  gone.  Usually 
after  breakfast  or  at  bedtime  are  the  most  con- 
venient hours  and,  therefore,  the  most  regularly 
observed.  In  requiring  this  habit  of  regularity, 
as  well  as  other  right  habits,  mothers  have 
nature's  cooperation. 


Results  of  constipation 

It  is  a  mistake  to  have  the  medicine  habit  for 
constipation.  It  is  very  unusual  that  suitable 
diet,  water  and  exercise  fail  to  secure  the  one 
daily  evacuation  necessary.  No  mother  is  for- 
givable for  failing  to  establish  this  habit  in  her 


40  PREVENTION  OF 

children,  together  with  an  appreciation  of  the 
"internal  cleanliness"  in  which  it  is  a  factor. 
The  child's  habit  of  constipation  cannot  always 
be  easily  corrected  in  later  life.  It  causes  some- 
times local  trouble,  such  as  hemorrhoids,  or 
fissures  (cracks)  in  the  anus  that  increase  con- 
stipation because  so  painful,  and  other  results 
even  more  serious.  It  is  a  cause  of  anemia, 
headache,  mental  dullness,  irritability,  loss  of 
appetite,  with  the  coated  tongue  that  makes  an 
offensive  breath  and  unclean  mouth  whose 
harmfulness  we  have  learned.  It  is  almost 
always  found  in  girls  who  have  painful  menstrua- 
tion, or  undevelopt  or  misplaced  pelvic  organs. 
The  results,  therefore,  are  liable  to  be  so  serious 
that  when  mothers  cannot  prevent  constipation 
by  their  own  efforts  they  should  consult  a  physi- 
cian rather  than  allow  the  habit  to  go  on,  particu- 
larly between  nine  and  sixteen  years  of  age. 
We  might  more  wisely  say  from  infancy  to  six- 
teen; but  the  tendency  to  it  is  increast  during 
school  life  by  sitting  positions  and  habits,  so  that 
special  attention  is  called  to  it  during  these  years. 
One  of  the  sitting  positions  inviting  constipa- 
tion and  other  ills  is  the  very  common  habit  of 
sitting  on  the  lower  part  of  the  back  instead  of  on 
buttocks  and  upper  part  of  thighs.  With  the 
former  wrong  position,  and  sometimes  even  with 
the  latter,  children  and  others  are  often  seen  with 
chest  dropt  forward,  so  that  between  the  crowding 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  41 

down  from  above  and  crowding  up  from  below 
the  abdominal  and  thoracic  circulation  is  greatly 
impeded,  digestive  and  other  organs  being  squeezed 
out  of  place  and  shape.  Corsets  compressing 
laterally  do  no  more  harm,  I  fancy,  than  this 
vertical  compression  in  the  corsetless.  It  is 
restful,  literally  so,  to  sit  and  stand  erect,  and 
children  trained  to  it  become  less  easily  fatigued. 
This  does  not  mean  that  the  backs  of  seats  should 
not  be  used,  but  means  that  the  spine  should  not 
be  curved  forward  in  using  them.  School  seats 
with  properly  shaped  backs  are  necessary. 

This  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  mothers'  clubs 
should  urge  changes  in  school  curricula  by  which 
children  can  have  more  moving  about  during 
school  hours;  manual  training  rooms  with  work- 
benches, domestic  science  rooms  with  worktables, 
nature  study  (or  botany,  zoology,  or  biology) 
rooms  with  specimens  to  examine  grown  in  the 
children's  own  school  gardens  or  collected  on 
country  walks;  "organized  games,"  dancing  and 
other  physical  exercise,  not  forgetting  one  of  the 
most  important,  swimming. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  school  customs  invite 
ill  health.  Books  are  not  the  only  road  to  wisdom, 
possibly  not  even  the  best,  as  we  have  been  assum- 
ing. 


42  PREVENTION  OF 

March 

What  and  when  school  children  should  eat 

Important  as  are  external  and  internal  clean- 
liness in  preventing  school  fatigue,  nutrition  is 
no  less  so.  Each  detail  is  so  dependent  on  the 
others  that  when  one  is  neglected  all  suffer. 

Many  children  are  started  wrong  in  the  morn- 
ing. Perhaps  because  they  slept  in  a  room  with 
closed  windows,  or  because  of  bad  teeth  or  con- 
stipation that  "spoil"  the  mouth,  or  because  they 
lack  that  "morning  tonic" — for  these  or  other 
reasons  they  have  little  appetite  for  breakfast. 
We  have  discust  these  points. 

Too  often  breakfast  is  a  hurried  snatch  instead 
of  being  appetizingly  served  like  the  later  meals. 
Many  children  go  to  school  improperly  bathed 
and  fed  because  of  late  rising,  probably  due  to 
late  hours  the  night  before.  In  some  foreign 
cities  and  in  some  of  our  own  schools  open  at 
eight  o'clock  or  eight-thirty.  Earlier  hours 
both  morning  and  night  are  better  for  children 
and  for  grown-ups.  We  live  too  much  by  artifi- 
cial light,  and  miss  the  exhilarating  morning 
freshness.  The  question  is  when  will  more 
parents  adopt  more  wholesome  hours  for  the 
children's  good,  and  more  wholesome  food  when 
they  set  but  one  table,  and  furnish  more  whole- 
some examples  in  some  other  particulars. 

There  is,  too,  the  fact  that  for  some  a  hearty 
meal  as  the  first  event  of  the  day  is  not  indicated. 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  43 

For  these  and  other  reasons  very  many  go  to 
school  (as  to  other  duties)  without  enough  to 
sustain  them  until  half  past  twelve  or  one  o'clock. 
This  is  the  cause  of  much  "school  fatigue,"  as 
well  as  of  breaking  down  among  office  workers  and 
others. 

Some  public  and  many  private  schools  serve 
a  glass  of  milk  or  cocoa  and  a  biscuit  between 
half  past  ten  and  eleven  o'clock.  It  is  a  pretty 
and  a  wise  custom  I  have  seen,  to  have  the 
children  before  the  lunch  is  brought  in  sit  for 
two  or  three  minutes  with  heads  lying  on  the 
desks,  resting  peacefully.  Certain  children  bring 
in  the  food  on  trays,  giving  to  each  a  paper  napkin 
for  the  desk  and  another  for  the  hands.  The 
children  learn  to  serve  and  to  eat  daintily,  the 
whole  event  not  requiring  more  than  six  or 
seven  minutes.  Those  who  can  afford  to  do  so 
pay  a  few  cents  a  week;  but  all  have  the  food, 
no  one  knowing  who  does  not  pay.  There  are 
several  ways  of  doing  this.  Wherever  attempted, 
the  resulting  better  work  and  vitality  thru  the 
year  justify  the  plan. 

The  noon  luncheon  is  another  item  in  prevent- 
ing school  fatigue.  Children  often  bring  unsuit- 
able food  from  home  and  spend  their  pennies  on 
poor  stuff.  It  is  said  that  a  noon  dinner  for 
those  who  go  home  interferes  with  good  work  in 
the  afternoon  session.  The  mother  sometimes 
is  away  at  work  and  there  is  no  suitable  dinner  at 


44  PREVENTION  OF 

home.  The  custom  of  lunching  at  school  is 
growing.  Caterers  who  frequently  serve  the 
luncheon  are  not  dietitians,  and  I  have  never 
seen  any  school  lunches  served  by  them  that  were 
as  wholesome  or  as  well  served  as  certain  ones 
served  by  mothers'  clubs.  They  perhaps  employ 
a  business  woman  or  man;  but  are  themselves 
represented  by  two  or  three  ladies  present  every 
day.  The  variety  on  a  single  day  is  much  less 
than  that  of  caterers;  the  fancy  and  "made 
dishes"  fewer;  but  the  variety  from  day  to  day 
is  ample,  and  children  are  thoroly  satisfied  with 
the  excellence  and  daintiness  of  the  simpler  menu. 
In  some  English  schools  and  in  a  few  of  ours 
the  domestic  science  classes  prepare  and  serve 
the  luncheons,  or  a  portion  of  them.  This  may 
be  done  so  as  to  be  fine  training  for  the  pupils, 
and  results  encourage  further  experimenting. 
In  other  ways  this  problem  of  morning  and  noon 
lunches  of  better  quality  than  that  brought  from 
home  is  being  studied.  Whoever  undertakes 
it  should  have  a  definite  understanding  of  ele- 
mentary principles  of  nutrition.  This  is  not  too 
difficult  for  mothers'  clubs  to  set  about  acquiring. 
A  competent  instructor  (very  many  are  not  so) 
can  in  a  few  lessons  to  a  group  make  the  subject 
clear  enough  for  this  purpose,  or  some  may 
decide  to  give  one  whole  year  to  the  study  of 
school  lunches,  while  another  group  gives  its 
attention  to  schoolhouse  cleaning.  In  almost 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  45 

every  organization  there  are  members  who  wish 
to  concentrate  on  some  special  studies  and  lines 
of  effort.  By  encouraging  and  assisting  them  to 
do  so  valuable  members  are  likely  to  be  had  and 
progressive  usefulness  secured.  The  club  as  a 
whole  may  continue  its  general  programs  which 
will  be  strengthened  by  occasional  contributions 
from  the  special  workers.  All  can  concentrate 
on  a  common  purpose  when  it  has  been  developt. 

The  United  States  Bureau  of  Education  has 
recently  issued  Bulletin,  1909,  No.  3,  The  Daily 
Meals  of  School  Children  by  Caroline  L.  Hunt. 
It  can  be  obtained  on  request  by  addressing  the 
Bureau  at  Washington  as  above.  The  secretary 
of  every  club  should  include  this  in  its  circulating 
or  reference  library.  Another  help  in  providing 
the  right  foods  for  children,  which  can  be  had  on 
application,  is  the  Bulletins  on  Human  Nutrition 
issued  by  the  State  College  of  Agriculture  at 
Cornell  University,  Ithaca,  New  York.  Address 
Dr.  L.  H.  Bailey,  Director.  Also  the  department 
of  home  economics  in  every  state  agricultural 
college  is  always  glad  to  assist  mothers'  clubs 
in  their  study  of  how  to  feed  children,  and  it  is 
a  very  good  thing  to  keep  in  touch  with  this 
department. 

There  is  an  article  on  "The  School  Luncheon" 
by  Lucy  A.  Osborne,  of  the  Worcester  Trade 
School  for  Girls,  in  The  Pedagogical  Seminary, 
June,  1912,  that  will  perhaps  be  most  helpful, 


46  PREVENTION  OF 

since  it  surveys  the  field  quite  thoroly,  and  also 
has  a  large  number  of  references  to  the  writings 
of  others.  This  magazine  should  be  in  every 
public  library  for  the  use  of  mothers'  clubs,  for 
it  contains  the  valuable  studies  concerning 
children  made  year  by  year  at  Clark  University, 
or  made  outside  by  its  graduates. 

No  attempt  is  worth  while  here  to  enter  into 
details  of  dietetics,  for  they  need  pages,  time  and 
discussion.  In  Miss  Hunt's  Bulletin,  besides 
helpful  and  practical  directions,  a  few  good 
references  will  be  found  to  other  writings.  There 
is  almost  no  improvement  in  the  curriculum  of 
public  schools  that  women  can  more  becomingly 
urge  than  the  teaching  of  domestic  science,  with 
the  insistence  on  appointing  a  really  competent 
instructor.  Simple  cookery  and  sewing  in  the 
upper  grammar  grades  is  needed;  but  in  the 
high  schools  a  very  much  larger  outlook  should 
be  given,  to  include  the  family  responsibilities 
and  duties  of  home  makers.  Our  high  schools 
must  turn  out  intelligent  home  makers  before 
the  prevention  of  school  fatigue  can  be  realized. 
Even  then  we  shall  have  on  hand  the  question 
what  to  do  for  the  millions  of  young  men  and 
women  between  sixteen  and  twenty-five  years  of 
age,  who  dropt  out  of  primary  and  grammar 
grades,  are  liable  to  become  parents,  and  have 
only  this  childhood's  education  and  information 
pickt  up  from  newspapers,  streets,  companions 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  47 

and  the  like  with  which  to  bring  up  their  chil- 
dren. 

Boys  as  well  as  girls  become  home  makers,  and 
their  intelligence  must  be  equally  assured.  I 
have  found  in  various  places  boys  in  the  grammar 
or  lower  grades  learning  to  sew  on  buttons  and  do 
simple  mending  and  darning,  learning  simple 
cookery  for  "when  mother  is  sick,"  or  for  camp- 
ing. This  is  what  all  soldiers  and  sailors  and 
ranchmen  do,  what  George  Junior  Republic 
boys,  Boy  Scouts  and  many  others  do.  Mothers 
should  help  public  schools  to  supply  instruction 
in  this  important  need  of  boys,  and  should  train 
their  own  to  take  care  of  themselves  and  their 
rooms  and  belongings  after  decent  and  sanitary 
fashion.  In  England  I  found  boys  and  girls  in 
classes  studying  about  choosing  the  site,  building 
the  house,  plumbing,  ventilation  and  other 
details  of  home  sanitation;  pure  food  laws, 
detecting  adulterations;  disposal  of  waste,  orderly 
premises,  clean  streets,  all  of  which  concern  boys 
as  much  as  girls.  It  raises  the  idea  of  home  to 
have  it  of  enough  dignity  and  worth  to  study  in 
school. 

The  problem  of  school  fatigue  is  most  hope- 
fully undertaken  thru  this  national  instruction 
in  home  making,  being  mindful  that  all  the  con- 
cerns of  the  community  and  all  the  concerns  of 
the  home  in  this  age  are  identical. 


48  PREVENTION  OF 

April 

Muscular  exerci.se  an  internal  bath 

Physical  exercise  is  a  large  factor  in  preventing 
school  fatigue. 

I  am  writing  by  the  open  library  window  of  a 
university  overlooking  the  valley  of  the  Monon- 
gahela  and  purple  hills  beyond,  where  the  first 
spring  thunder  shower  is  circling.  On  the  campus 
to  the  left  is  an  imposing  gymnasium  with  baths 
and  all  the  other  up-to-date  features,  such  as 
physical  examinations,  a  generous  athletic  field, 
and  an  expert  to  guide  their  use  wisely. 

The  students,  only  one  out  of  a  hundred  in  the 
public  schools,  young  men  and  women,  are  having 
this  care  of  their  health  for  the  first  time,  after 
ten  or  twelve  years  of  "laying  foundations" 
without  it.  It  is  well  within  the  truth  to  say  that 
they  would  average  three  years  better  in  capacity 
for  citizenship  if  the  elementary  schools  had 
attended  to  their  personal  habits,  play  and  formal 
exercise  and  physical  defects.  It  is  certainly 
beginning  at  the  wrong  end.  But  it  is  in  line 
with  the  history  of  our  schools  which  have  been 
developt  with  the  idea  that  college  and  university 
is  theifr  objective.  What  of  the  ninety-nine  in 
each  hundred  who  do  not  go  to  college?  We  are 
only  recently  seeing — with  a  still  limited  vision — 
that  public  schools  would  better  train  in  right 
living  than  for  college. 

A  few  days  ago  I  was  in  a  rather  famous 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  49 

elementary  school,  famous  because  part  of  a 
great  institution  that  turns  out  teachers.  I  saw 
several  classes  in  gymnastics,  and  this  was  the 
way  of  it:  They  exercised  in  a  square  entrance 
hall  into  which  dust  was  trackt  from  the, streets 
of  this  "soft  coal  city"  by  thousands  of  feet  daily. 
The  windows  up  the  stairway  were  closed  (they 
had  a  system  of  heating  and  ventilating  forbidding 
opening  windows);  the  thermometer  registered 
70°-74°.  After  a  class  had  rollickt  with  open 
mouths  thru  some  very  lively  gyrations  my  own 
face  and  throat  were  parent  with  dust  and  heat 
and  foul  air;  the  pupils'  faces  were  red,  bodies 
perspiring  and  odorous,  and  there  was  coughing 
on  all  sides  to  clear  the  throats.  Laughter  and 
breathlessness  and  the  beautiful  elasticity  after 
abuse  of  which  childhood  has  so  much  (or  what 
would  we  come  to!)  covered  the  sins  of  omission 
and  commission  in  the  teachers'  eyes,  and  one 
said  to  me,  "  Can  anyone  say  that  this  ought  not  to 
be  in  the  public  schools!"  With  much  restraint 
I  replied,  "Yes.  It  ought  not.  It  ought  to  be 
out  in  that  concreted  yard  this  glorious  day." 
He  saw  the  point  partly  perhaps,  but  the  inflexible 
monster,  "system,"  mechanical,  shortsighted,  is 
doubtless  grinding  along  to-day  in  that  entrance 
hall,  as  it  has  thru  the  years,  sending  out  teachers 
by  the  thousand  with  standards  accordingly. 

If  mothers  thru  their  clubs  would  throw  their 
energy  into  the  growing  demand  for  as  wholesome 
4 


50  PREVENTION  OF 

or  more  wholesome  environment  for  the  little 
children  of  the  nation  as  for  the  big  ones,  we 
would  "arrive"  much  sooner. 

To  fit  a  few  of  the  children  for  college  schools 
have  exercised  all  children  by  chiefly  the  "tiny 
eye  and  tongue  and  pen  wagging  muscles,"  with 
body  in  a  stooping  position  that  compresses  heart, 
lungs,  digestive  and  pelvic  organs.  This  period 
of  most  rapid  growth  should  make  sure  of  the  full 
development  of  these  vital  organs,  and  of  the 
nervous  system,  which  determine  length  and 
usefulness  of  life;  and  of  the  reproductive  organs 
also,  whose  development  depends  largely  on  a  free 
circulation.  Vigorous  circulation  requires  a 
strong  heart,  which  comes  by  exercise  of  the  heart 
muscle,  as  other  muscles  are  strengthened  by 
exercise.  Heart  and  lungs  are  physiologically 
one;  the  development  of  one  means  both.  It  is 
exercise  of  large  muscles,  those  of  the  back,  legs, 
arms,  that  most  increases  pulse  and  respiration 
(heart  and  lung  action),  fitting  them  for  the 
sudden  and  long  continued  strains  of  life.  Parents 
need  to  remember  that  good  hearts,  lungs, 
digestive,  reproductive  and  nervous  systems  are 
the  most  important  aims  of  exercise;  and  that 
reasonably  energetic  use  of  the  large  muscles  in 
cool  fresh  air  is  the  way  to  accomplish  it.  By  this 
we  acquire  the  vigor  underlying  mental  and 
physical  work,  lack  of  which  is  quite  as  often  the 
cause  of  incapacity  and  failure  as  is  lack  of 
knowledge. 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  51 

Exeicise  drives  the  blood  and  lymph  more 
strongly  thru  every  "nook  and  cranny,"  using 
up  "fuel"  stored  so  long  it  needs  to  be  used  to 
make  way  for  fresher,  sweeping  away  waste  more 
thoroly,  and  bringing  to  all  parts  abundance  of 
food  and  oxygen.  This  is  another  kind  of  "bath," 
another  method  of  securing  "internal  cleanliness." 
These  "toxins"  and  wastes  that  are  removed  are 
not  only  a  cause  of  feeling  tired  (poisoned),  but 
are  often  a  cause  of  "the  blues,"  of  feeling  dis- 
couraged, "cross,"  incapable. 

To  prevent  school  fatigue,  or  to  drive  it  away  by 
exercise,  another  thing  is  necessary — the  play 
spirit.  Just  as  gymnastics  in  hot  foul  air  are 
bad,  so  gymnastics  not  enjoyed,  "a  bore,"  fail 
to  accomplish  all  they  might.  Therefore,  play- 
grounds, and  rhythmic,  artistic  or  historic  games 
and  dances  are  supplementing  gymnasia  and 
replacing  formal  drill.  Remembering  the  poor 
gymnastics  usually  seen  in  ordinary  schools, 
parents  will  probably  "err  on  the  right  side" 
if  they  urge  instead  playgrounds  and  capable 
supervision.  A  combination  of  both  excellent 
gymnastics  and  delightful  play,  including  dancing, 
is  best;  and  I  have  seen  it — but  only  very  rarely. 
Gymnastics,  when  weather  permits,  should  be 
in  the  playgrounds;  mothers  who  understand  the 
need  of  open  air  can  help  persuade  officials  of  this. 
Competition  in  running,  jumping,  dancing  or  other 
exercise  that  leaves  the  child  exhausted  at  the 


52  PREVENTION  OF 

day's  end,  or  the  next  day,  is  not  a  help  in  pre- 
venting school  fatigue,  and  is  as  unwise  as  not 
enough  exercise. 

Parents  should  visit  schools  during  exercise 
time;  and  if  the  atmosphere  has  not  the  open 
air  freshness,  accept  no  excuse  that  is  not  weigh- 
tier than  health  itself.  Many  "best  we  can 
do's"  are  not  true.  It  is  rather  official  lack  of 
intelligence  or  conscience  ("high  up"  possibly), 
resourcefulness,  willingness,  in  adapting  condi- 
tions to  the  laws  of  health.  If  the  children  are 
not  heartily  enjoying  the  work  or  the  fun,  try  to 
find  out  what  is  wrong  (not  always  easy),  and  have 
it  set  right  promptly  and  wisely.  It  is  too  vital 
to  ignore. 

Gymnastics  and  supervised  recreation  at  school 
are  but  one  means  of  preventing  school  fatigue. 
Development  of  heart,  lungs,  nervous  system  and 
body  framework,  the  sweeping  away  of  fatigue 
poisons  and  the  renewal  of  tissues  can  be  secured 
perhaps  even  better  by  excursions  to  fields, 
forests  and  hills;  by  boating,  swimming  and 
skating;  by  running  errands,  gardening  and 
other  out  of  door  usefulnesses — if  parents  have 
the  tact  to  introduce  the  play  spirit,  interest  in 
some  purpose,  and  enjoyment. 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  53 

May 

Idleness,  evenings,  dress  and  cigarettes 
There  is  more  than  physical  benefit  to  think 
of  in  aiming  to  prevent  school  fatigue  by  filling 
out-of-school  hours  with  occupations  calling  for 
bodily,  mental  and  moral  activities  differing  from 
but  supplementing  school  life.  Kipling  states 
it  picturesquely. 

The  Camel's  hump  is  an  ugly  hump 

Which  well  you  may  see  at  the  Zoo; 
But  uglier  still  is  the  hump  we  get 

From  having  too  little  to  do. 

Kiddies  and  grown-ups  too-oo-oo. 
If  we  haven't  enough  to  do-oo-oo, 

We  get  the  hump — 

Cameelious  hump — 
The  hump  that  is  black  and  blue. 

We  climb  out  of  bed  with  a  frowzly  head 

And  a  snarly-yarly  voice. 
We  shiver  and  scowl  and  we  grunt  and  we  growl 

At  our  bath  and  our  boots  and  our  toys. 

And  there  ought  to  be  a  corner  for  me 
(And  I  know  there  is  one  for  you) 

When  we  get  the  hump — 

Cameelious  hump — 
The  hump  that  is  black  and  blue. 

The  cure  for  this  ill  is  not  to  sit  still, 

Or  frowst  with  a  book  by  the  fire; 
But  to  take  a  large  hoe  and  a  shovel  also, 

And  dig  till  you  gently  perspire. 

And  then  you  will  find  that  the  sun  and  the  wind, 
And  the  Djinn  of  the  garden  too, 

Have  lifted  the  hump — 

The  horrible  hump — 
The  hump  that  is  black  and  blue. 


54  PREVENTION  OF 

I  get  it  as  well  as  you-oo-oo — 
If  I  haven't  enough  to  do-oo-oo — 

We  all  get  the  hump — 

Cameelious  hump — 
Kiddies  and  grown-ups  too. 


Particularly  at  the  ages  from  ten  to  sixteen, 
when  child  is  rapidly  developing  into  adult,  too 
little  to  do  is  a  genuine  evil.  Mothers  should 
guard  against  idle  hours,  day-dreaming  and 
poring  over  story  books.  The  last  is  liable  to 
become  a  dissipation,  and  all  are  liable  to  encour- 
age wastefulness  of  thought  force  and  moral 
force,  even  inviting  vicious  habits  of  mind  and 
body.  "School  fatigue,"  i.e.,  indifference  to 
work,  pallor  and  nervousness,  can  result  from 
these  misspent  hours  quite  as  surely  as  from  bad 
air  and  sitting  habits  in  school. 

School  children's  evenings  should  be  spent  at 
home,  and  the  retiring  hour  should  be  early. 
To  school  children  evening  parties,  theatres, 
concerts  and  other  entertainments  are  never 
worth  their  cost  in  hours  of  sleep.  These  hours 
of  sleep  and  the  "simple  life"  are  more  important 
than  parents  usually  think;  the  "educational 
value"  of  evening  entertainments  much  less. 

The  cigarette  habit,  quite  apt  to  be  begun  by 
elementary  schoolboys,  is  harmful  from  every 
viewpoint.  So  long  as  many  men  and  a  few 
women  consider  it  suitable  for  themselves,  and 
so  long  as  others  peacefully  submit  to  having  the 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  55 

air  of  city  streets,  homes,  hotels,  restaurants, 
places  of  amusement  and  "recreation"  polluted 
by  tobacco  smoke,  so  long  the  boy  and  occasion- 
ally the  girl  will  " ape  their  elders."  Example  and 
imitation  is  the  most  powerful  "educational 
system."  The  tobacco  smoke  evil  should  be 
made  to  go  with  the  soft  coal  smoke  evil. 

A  teacher  once  told  me  of  having  noticed  in  her 
forty  years  of  service  "waves"  of  the  cigarette 
habit  come  and  go  with  the  transit  of  popular 
masters  who  smoked.  Another,  during  a  serious 
talk  with  her  boys  was  interrupted  by  the  princi- 
pal passing  thru  the  room,  leaving  behind  the 
characteristic  odor.  Thereupon  one  boy  argued, 
"The  boss  smokes."  Professor  William  A. 
McKeever  has  a  valuable  article,  The  Cigarette 
Smoking  Boy,  in  Child-Welfare  Magazine  for 
April,  1910;  and  another  in  Education,  November, 
1907.  Education  also  publishes  The  Boy  and  the 
Cigarette  Habit  by  H.  S.  Gray,  January,  1909. 
The  Health-Education  League  of  Boston  has  a 
five  cent  leaflet,  The  Boy  and  The  Cigarette; 
address  8  Beacon  Street,  Boston.  All  authorities 
agree  that,  whether  or  not  smoking  injures  adults, 
it  certainly  seriously  injures  children  both  physi- 
cally and  mentally — this  means  morally  also. 


Dress 

Dress  is  a  factor  in  school  fatigue  that  concerns 
girls  more  than  boys.     So  much  has  been  said 


56  PREVENTION  OF 

during  so  many  years  against  compressing  the 
bodies  of  girls  that  the  majority  are  drest  with 
considerable  freedom  and  good  judgment  in  this 
respect.  Nothing  that  could  be  presented  in 
these  pages  would  alter  the  habits  of  others. 
There  are  two  points  that  need  mention,  the  dress 
of  the  head  and  of  the  feet. 

For  the  head  I  will  only  briefly  plead  for  simpler 
hair  dressing.  The  heat  and  confinement  of  the 
scalp  when  the  hair  is  loaded  with  ribbons, 
combs,  and  frames  for  distorting  the  shape  of 
the  head  are  not  only  injurious  to  the  growth  of 
hair,  but  wearying.  We  all  know  the  refreshment 
of  letting  loose  long  hair  and  giving  the  scalp  air 
and  friction.  A  friend  says,  "I  am  so  tired  I 
must  rest  my  hair."  This  is  one  of  the  little 
things  that  help  make  up  the  day's  weariness,  like 
the  strain  of  defective  vision  and  hearing  which 
we  shall  discuss  further  on  in  the  volume.  Those 
who  wish  our  American  girls  to  be  beautiful, 
and  compare  the  heads  of  Greek  women  that  are 
as  lovely  today  as  two  thousand  years  ago  with 
photographs  of  modern  coiffures,  plead  for  simpler 
hairdressing  among  girls  purely  on  artistic 
grounds. 

The  dressing  of  the  feet  is  still  more  important. 
The  reason  why  girls  should  wear  low  heels 
(not  more  than  one  inch)  and  thick  soles  except 
in  the  two  or  three  months  of  hot  weather  is 
that  high  heels  and  thin  soles  in  cool  weather  are 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  57 

at  the  root  of  much  of  the  ill  health  of  menstrua- 
tion and  of  later  life.  The  high  heels  compel 
certain  muscles  to  pull  back  in  order  to  maintain 
the  balance.  This  alters  the  normal  angles  at 
the  pelvis  to  the  future  injury  of  the  woman,  and 
requires  constant  tho  perhaps  unconscious  effort 
of  muscles  holding  the  body  erect  that  wearies 
like  all  constant  effort.  High  heels  produce  a 
most  ungraceful  walk  and  weaken  the  arch  of  the 
foot  which  was  designed  for  a  level  foot.  This 
lessens  the  enjoyment  of  walking,  climbing  and 
other  open  air  pleasures  that  girls  need. 

Thin  soles  that  allow  the  chill  of  the  ground 
to  pass  to  the  foot  and  so  to  affect  the  body  are  a 
factor  in  painful  menstruation.  This  cooling 
of  the  soles  may  not  be  noticed  by  the  wearer, 
but  delicate  nerves  are  carrying  their  sensations 
and  impulses  thru  lower  extremities  and  pelvis 
to  and  from  the  spinal  and  central  nervous  sys- 
tem continually.  There  are  not  more  than  three 
months  when  the  thickness  of  the  middle  forepart 
of  the  sole  can  wisely  be  less  than  one-quarter  of 
an  inch  for  either  boys  or  girls.  Thick  soles  can 
be  soft  and  flexible.  There  should  be  some  law 
regulating  the  degree  of  monstrosity  merchants 
may  offer  customers,  and  requiring  hygienic 
footgear  as  definitely  as  law  requires  unadulter- 
ated food. 

Another  point  about  shoes  that  causes  fatigue 
is  the  thousands  of  impacts  daily  of  the  hard 


58  PREVENTION  OF 

heel  on  the  hard  pavement,  jarring  the  delicate 
tissues  of  the  cerebro-spinal  nervous  system. 
Nature  gave  us  elastic  heels  for  an  elastic  earth. 
I  have  found  rubber  ones  (there  is  a  good  quality 
that  outlasts  the  shoe)  excellent  in  preventing 
fatigue  and  restoring  exhausted  nerves  of  patients. 
City  children,  certainly  if  not  strong,  would  be 
better  with  them. 


June 

The  long  vacation 

In  conclusion,  not  the  least  important  item  in 
preventing  school  fatigue  is  to  start  the  school 
year  in  good  condition.  This  means  living  the 
long  vacation  sensibly — if  we  must  have  long 
vacations.  "Sensibly"  translated  into  details 
should  stand  for  early  rising  and  early  retiring, 
the  tonic  bath  and  all  habits  of  external  cleanliness, 
care  of  the  mouth  and  all  habits  of  internal 
cleanliness  continued,  with  every  minute  possible 
spent  in  the  open  air;  no  wasted  hours.  Certain 
regular  duties  and  responsibilities  add  to  the 
enjoyment  when  wisely  assigned.  Summer  is 
the  time  for  developing  home  ideals  and  interest 
in  home  affairs,  for  families  to  become  acquainted 
who  have  been  separated  by  winter's  occupations, 


SCHOOL  FATIGUE  59 

and  for  mothers  and  fathers  to  grow  into  friend- 
ships with  their  children  whom  teachers  have 
monopolized  during  their  best  hours. 

Summer  is  the  time  for  gardening,  swimming 
and  boating,  hill  climbing,  forests,  fields  and 
sports.  Mothers  should  make  summer  at  home 
a  "vacation  school"  for  their  own  children — not 
leave  it  to  "run  to  waste."  Teachers  have  told 
me  that  many  return  to  school  in  the  autumn  hav- 
ing lost  ground  in  many  ways;  that  "vacation 
school"  children  are  in  better  form  mentally  and 
physically,  and  by  "vacation  school"  we  mean  all 
the  entertainments  that  have  been  mentioned 
provided  for  the  children  by  teachers  who  are 
nature  lovers,  play  experts,  instructors  in  hand 
work  and  domestic  work — all  the  good  things 
they  do  not  get  in  school,  and  some  of  them  cannot 
get  at  home.  Many  mothers'  clubs  plan  to  make 
the  long  vacation  more  profitable  and  happier 
for  children  with  poor  homes  by  supplying  these 
play  schools,  summer  gardens  and  nature  study 
excursions. 


II 


MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND  CLEAN 
SCHOOLHOUSES 


The  standard  of  healthfullness  in  schoolhouses  should  be 
that  in  the  best  kept  homes 

November 

Men  as  housekeepers 

In  our  discussion  of  school  fatigue  we  men- 
tioned last  November  the  injurious  effects  of 
dusty,  dry,  overheated  air  in  schoolrooms. 
Those  few  paragraphs  are  much  too  little  for 
mothers — conscientious  mothers — on  this  ex- 
tremely important  matter  of  healthful  schools. 

Many  clubs  are  taking  up  the  subject;  also  the 
Department  of  Science  Instruction  of  the  Na- 
tional Education  Association  has  appointed  a 
committee  on  the  sanitary  care  of  school  premises, 
with  an  advisory  committee  of  experts  in  sanita- 
tion. If  mothers  persevere  in  agitating  for  clean 
schoolhouses,  and  if  this  committee  makes  a 
practical  report  in  accordance  with  scientific 
facts,  undoubtedly  improvements  will  result. 
61 


62  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

Already  there  are  numerous  signs  of  public 
awakening  to  the  importance  of  janitors  among 
school  officials. 

The  government  or  the  public  opinion  that 
compels  children  to  attend  school  is  under  moral 
obligation  to  keep  the  school  as  clean  and  whole- 
some as  at  least  the  best  kept  homes  from  which 
they  are  taken.  If  it  be  possible  to  improve  on 
the  best  homes,  it  is  for  the  interests  of  society 
to  do  so.  Otherwise  schools  become  a  place  where 
nose  and  throat  and  lung  diseases  are  invited, 
contagions  acquired;  where  the  nervous  system 
and  the  functions  of  the  body,  all  of  which  are 
controlled  by  the  nervous  system,  are  injured. 
When  seedlings  are  badly  placed  and  starved  they 
do  not  mature,  or  they  are  always  inferior  to 
those  given  plenty  of  sunlight,  water  and  open 
air.  So  these  children  in  dirty  schoolhouses  help 
increase  the  number  of  ailing  grown-ups,  and 
their  children  are  born  less  vigorous  than  they 
might  have  been  with  sturdy  parents. 

There  are  few  things  more  illogical — it  would 
be  a  huge  joke  if  it  were  not  so  terribly  tragic — 
than  for  a  government  of  fathers  to  collect  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  children  away  from  their 
mothers,  in  public  buildings  cared  for  by  ordinary 
working  men  (rarely  by  women)  without  training 
in  housekeeping  or  health  methods. 

No  good  housewives  have  the  dirty,  dusty 
floors  and  bad  smells  with  which  government 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  63 

shuts  up  children  and  teachers.  Women,  even 
tho  "naturally"  housekeepers,  are  more  and 
more  often  being  trained  for  "their  mission;" 
nurses  in  their  schools,  other  women  in  schools 
and  classes  for  home  economics  or  domestic 
science,  or  perhaps  in  technical,  industrial  or 
trade  schools.  Even  in  colleges  and  universities 
training  for  home  making  is  coming  into  its  own 
and  is  being  granted  degrees  of  bachelor  of 
science  and  doctor  of  philosophy  as  is  done  in 
courses  designed  more  especially  for  men.  This 
is  because  good  housekeeping  is  really  the  practi- 
cal application  of  certain  scientific  principles  in 
the  arts  of  healthful  living,  and  it  is  nothing  less. 

But  those  who  have  "kept  house"  for  several 
hundred  millions  of  children  at  school  in  the 
United  States  have  been  and  are,  for  the  most 
part,  untrained  and  little  educated  men  appointed 
by  other  men  likewise  ignorant  of  sanitation  and 
housewifery — rather  inclined,  in  fact,  to  look  down 
on  housework  as  beneath  a  man — and  therefore 
not  capable  judges  of  janitors'  efficiency.  The 
plea  that  all  concerned  meant  well  or  mean  well 
lessens  in  no  smallest  degree  the  evil  effects  of 
unsanitary  conditions  on  children  and  teachers. 

Bad  school  housekeeping  is  partly,  also,  be- 
cause schools  "are  in  politics,"  and  our  partizan 
politics  based  on  "majority  rule"  long  ago 
adopted  the  slogan,  "To  the  victor  belong  the 
spoils."  This  means  that  one  way  of  rewarding 


64  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

a  man  for  his  vote  is  for  the  successful  candidate 
or  party  to  secure  him  an  appointment  to  a 
position — one  with  a  salary  usually  preferred. 
School  janitors,  for  example,  are  often  appointed 
for  their  party  loyalty  rather  than  for  qualifi- 
cations in  sanitary  care  of  the  environment  of 
children — our  "neglected  national  asset."  More 
than  one  has  argued  like  the  janitor  of  whom  a 
university  professor  and  ex-principal  recently 
told  me,  "You  can't  put  me  out.  Others  have 

tried  it  and  failed.  Senator  got  me  this 

place."  (Incidentally — to  encourage  other  prin- 
cipals in  well  doing — he  was  put  out  this  time.) 

There  are  other  calls  on  the  mothers  of  the 
nation  as  great,  but  none  greater  than  this  to  keep 
schoolhouses  as  wholesome  as  the  best  homes.  It 
has  much  to  do  with  morals  and  success  in  life. 
Clear  heads  to  judge  what  is  right  or  wrong  and 
what  makes  for  prosperity  or  for  failure  depend 
largely  on  healthy  bodies. 

The  death  rate  from  tuberculosis  among 
teachers  is  considerably  higher  than  among  all 
other  workers  together.  Tuberculosis  has  been 
found  after  death  among  more  than  half  the 
children  examined  who  died  from  diphtheria, 
scarlet  fever  and  other  diseases,  the  presence  of 
tuberculosis  not  being  suspected.  The  X-ray 
and  tuberculin  test  have  discovered  latent  tu- 
berculosis in  nearly  hah5  the  delicate  children 
examined.  These  are  more  likely  to  succumb  to 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  65 

other  diseases,  having  this  latent,  and  it  is  likely 
to  start  up  actively  as  the  result  of  other  diseases 
or  of  any  cause  which  lessens  the  general  health 
and  resisting  power,  as  school  conditions  often 
do.  All  who  have  studied  the  subject  agree  that 
schools  are  often  the  cause  of  nervous  disorders, 
pallor  and  a  group  of  symptoms  that  we  have 
labelled  "school  fatigue,"  altho  they  may  be  in 
part  due  to  inefficient  mothers  and  fathers  at 
home — most  of  whom  are  products  of  the  public 
schools  that  have  not  prepared  their  pupils  to  be 
wise  fathers  and  mothers. 

This  is  a  "vicious  circle"  for  mothers  to  break. 
Let  us  admit  that  schools  as  now  managed  are 
not  as  wholesome  as  they  should  and  can  be. 
Since  dusty,  vitiated,  arid  and  overheated  air 
are  known  to  be  common  factors  in  tuberculosis 
and  nervous  troubles,  mothers'  help  is  needed  in 
bringing  about  the  day  of  clean,  well  aired 
schools,  a  condition  as  much  like  open  air  as 
possible. 

The  fault  does  not  lie  with  the  janitors.  If 
working  men  or  women  without  specially  qualify- 
ing can  get  positions  that  bring  in  from  $700  to 
$3,000  a  year,  which  our  cities  usually  pay  jani- 
tors, naturally  they  take  them.  The  voters  and 
the  mothers  have  not  yet  insisted  on  efficient  care- 
takers and  clean  schoolhouses.  All  of  us  like 
to  receive  as  much  for  our  service  as  we  can  get, 
"other  things  being  equal." 
5 


66  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

Neither  is  the  fault  with  the  teachers.  Institu- 
tions training  general  teachers  rarely  give  them 
practice  in  school  sanitation,  and  rarely  even  set 
them  good  examples;  also  the  governing  boards 
usually  permit  them  merely  to  report  faulty 
conditions;  they  must  not  be  more  active  in 
improving  them.  Housekeepers  know  that  it 
requires  constant  "following  up"  of  unskilled 
workers  to  secure  the  details  of  cleanliness  and 
temperature  on  which  health  depends.  As  I 
have  said  in  another  place,  the  teacher  must 
"nag"  the  principal  and  "tell  on"  the  janitor, 
jeopardizing  her  position  that  she  has  no  political 
power  to  defend.  Teachers  and  children  are 
usually  helpless  "between  the  devil  and  the  deep 
sea"  in  this  matter. 

We  are  justified  in  expecting  good  housekeeping 
for  schools  in  at  least  the  nine  or  ten  states  where 
women  are  now  citizens  with  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  citizens  (this  sentence  has  been 
revised  to  1913).  If  mothers  and  housekeepers, 
whose  "  points  of  view  governments  have  suffered 
so  long  without,"  bring  into  public  service  for 
children  the  trained  skill  of  home  makers,  than 
which  we  have  no  greater  need  just  now,  the  value 
of  ballots  in  their  hands  is  proved.  If  they 
continue  school  standards  inferior  to  those  of 
the  best  kept  homes,  the  standards  of  men  who 
are  not  housekeepers,  they  throw  away  a  golden 
opportunity  to  help  unfranchised  women,  in 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  67 

addition  to  overlooking  the  welfare  of  children. 
This  social  service  is  the  most  convincing  argu- 
ment. Thoroly  healthful  schools  are  entirely 
possible.  I  have  seen  a  few. 


December 

Cleaning  floors 

Dust  is  at  last  recognized  as  a  very  common 
cause  of  ill  health.  The  dusts  from  stone,  metal 
and  glass  works,  from  coal  mines,  cotton  mills 
and  other  dusty  labor  cause  diseases  having 
special  names.  Tuberculosis  has  been  called 
"the  house  disease,"  which  means  that  dusty 
housework  has  its  bad  effects.  That  the  "house 
disease"  is  tuberculosis  is  because  bacilli  scattered 
by  consumptives  at  home  are  not  quickly  killed 
by  sunlight  and  fresh  air,  our  houses  shut  out  so 
much  of  them.  Their  shutting  out  also  injures 
the  general  health,  thus  predisposing  it  to  yield 
to  disease  germs,  tubercle  bacilli  being  the  easiest 
to  acquire. 

It  is  said  that  one  cubic  inch  of  good  country 
air  contains  2,000  dust  particles,  and  the  same 
amount  of  city  air  contains  3,000,000  particles 
made  up  of  dried  manure  and  sputum,  house  and 
shop  sweepings,  tobacco,  ashes,  soot,  particles  of 


68  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

iron,  glass  and  stone.  Schools  usually  have  also 
much  chalk  dust. 

Professor  C.-E.  A.  Winslow  found  56,000  dust 
particles  in  a  cubic  meter  of  quiet  city  air,  and 
20,000,000  after  a  dust  cloud  such  as  we  cannot 
walk  thru  the  streets  without  encountering 
occasionally.  In  a  cubic  meter  of  air  in  a  class 
room  before  the  class  entered  2,000  dust  particles 
were  found;  15,000  while  they  were  in  the  room; 
35,000  just  after  they  had  left.  Teachers  who 
have  had  their  children  make  cultures  of  dust 
"before  and  after,"  and  in  corridors,  playrooms, 
basements,  have  found  janitors  quite  as  interested 
as  pupils — with  good  results. 

There  are  very  few  germs  of  contagious  diseases 
in  dust,  especially  out-door  dust.  They  are 
usually  destroyed  by  drying  and  light  in  a  very 
short  time,  and  widely  scattered  by  winds.  There 
are,  however,  many  pus  germs  in  all  kinds  of  dust. 
An  interesting  account  of  what  is  known  about 
this  is  just  publisht  by  Professor  C.-E.  A.  Winslow 
in  the  September  number  of  American  Journal 
of  Public  Health,  1912.  The  Journal  ought  to 
be  found  in  any  public  library;  but  if  it  is  not, 
the  superintendent  of  health  has  it  and  it  can  be 
read  with  his  permission,  at  the  same  time  asking 
him  to  have  the  public  library  subscribe  for  the 
official  journal  of  the  American  Public  Health 
Association  and  keep  it  where  it  can  be  easily 
seen  and  read. 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  69 

Dust  causes  catarrhal  conditions  of  nose, 
throat  and  bronchial  tubes  by  irritating  them. 
These  congested  (irritated)  surfaces  are  in  the  best 
condition  for  any  disease  or  pus  germs  falling  on 
them  to  multiply.  In  this  way  dust  invites  ill 
health,  adenoid  conditions,  sore  eyes,  tuberculosis. 
Measurements  of  dust  in  city  air  should  arouse 
us  to  better  municipal  housekeeping,  cleaner 
streets  and  abatement  of  smoke  nuisances. 

To  keep  schoolroom  floors  as  free  as  possible 
from  dust  that  the  air  may  be  fit  for  children  to 
live  in  is  more  important  than  to  keep  almost 
any  other  floor  clean  because  the  vital  processes 
of  children  are  more  easily  affected  and  the  in- 
juries are  more  far  reaching;  because  children  in 
greater  numbers  are  affected  during  longer  periods 
of  time  in  a  schoolroom  than  in  any  other  kind  of 
room;  and  because  in  almost  no  other  room  is 
floor  dust  so  stirred  up  in  the  air  as  it  is  by  the 
many  restless  feet,  especially  during  gymnastics. 

There  are  two  points  for  mothers  to  keep 
steadily  in  mind  in  securing  clean  floors.  The 
first  is  to  see  that  the  floors  are  in  a  condition  to  be 
kept  clean.  A  floor  that  is  rough,  or  splintered, 
or  with  large  cracks,  such  as  good  housekeepers 
would  not  have  uncovered  at  home,  is  unfair  to 
have  for  children  and  teachers.  Cracks  cannot 
be  kept  clean,  and  splinters  or  other  roughnesses 
make  cleaning  so  difficult  (almost  impossible) 
that  it  is  neglected. 


70  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

The  best  thing  for  mothers  to  do  is  to  cover 
such  floors  with  a  good  linoleum,  taking  up  a 
popular  subscription  if  necessary,  or  a  private 
one,  to  raise  the  funds.  The  agitation  of  itself 
will  do  much  good.  It  will  help  educate  people 
and  politicians  to  the  right  of  children  to  be  well 
cared  for  and  to  one  of  the  ways  of  doing  it.  The 
numerous  bad  school  floors  thruout  the  country 
could  be  put  in  practically  perfect  condition  at 
once  by  a  little  outlay  in  each  community. 

It  will  give  much  more  satisfaction  to  choose 
a  linoleum  of  one  color,  not  in  patterns.  The 
easier  the  dust  is  seen,  the  more  of  it  will  be  wiped 
up.  The  good  housekeeper's  object  is  to  find 
the  dust  and  remove  all  there  is  of  it  out  of  the 
room  as  promptly  and  easily  as  possible. 

Ferryboats,  gunboats,  libraries,  hospitals  and 
other  structures  where  floors  receive  hard  usage, 
or  where  cleanliness  is  specially  wanted  use  heavy 
linoleums,  some  of  them  noiseless  and  fireproof. 
These  are  rather  expensive  at  first,  but  I  am  not 
sure  that  in  the  end  they  are  so — certainly  they 
are  not  if  estimated  in  terms  of  life  as  well  as  in 
dollars  and  cents.  The  ordinary  inlaid  linoleum 
is  less  expensive,  and  will  last  so  long  that  a  good 
quality  of  it  is  worth  laying.  I  know  a  hard  used 
school  floor  where  it  is  just  giving  out  after  fifteen 
years. 

A  good  housekeeper  or  "expert"  should  closely 
supervise  laying  it,  seeing  that  no  cracks  are  left, 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  71 

especially  at  the  sides,  which  the  average  workman 
almost  always  leaves.  For  the  heavier  linoleums 
there  is  a  liquid  crack  filler  that  hardens  in  place. 
If  laid  to  curve  up  against  the  walls  and  properly 
made  fast,  with  concave  corners  fitted,  there  is 
less  resting  place  for  dust.  The  metal  corners 
for  sale  at  hardware  stores  are  very  necessary  to 
have  for  corners  of  rooms  and  stairs.  There  are 
also  concave  moldings  that  can  be  laid  along  the 
sides  of  rooms  where  walls  and  floor  meet  so  that 
dirt  may  be  removed  more  thoroly  and  easily; 
for  the  easier,  the  oftener.  In  these  and  all  the 
following  details  mothers  have  to  take  buildings 
already  erected  and  make  the  best  of  them. 

Mothers'  clubs  convinced  of  the  fundamental 
importance  of  cleanliness  in  schools  can  find 
money  to  do  these  things  in  this  age  of  generous 
giving  and  generous  work.  I  know  two  or  three 
teachers  who  have  laid  linoleum  at  their  own 
expense — one  more  instance  of  these  overtaxt 
and  poorly  paid  women  showing  more  intelligent 
appreciation  of  children's  well-being  than  parents 
or  school  boards. 

When  this  first  condition  has  been  secured, 
floors  with  smooth  surfaces  and  concave  meeting 
with  walls,  there  come  next  the  problems  of  proper 
cleaning.  Good  housekeepers  all  over  the  country 
unquestionably  can  have  school  floors  kept  as 
clean  as  their  home  floors,  for  a  few  janitors  are 
doing  it,  and  while  doing  it  stir  up  only  the  very 
little  dust  it  seems  impossible  to  avoid. 


72  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

One  of  the  most  interesting  floors  I  have  seen 
is  in  a  crowded  school  in  the  heart  of  a  smoky 
city.  It  was  eight  years  old  when  I  saw  it, 
Georgia  pine,  and  the  yellow  grain  was  almost 
as  bright  as  if  the  floor  had  been  laid  that  month. 
The  janitor  had  never  used  water  on  it.  He  had 
always  used  a  hair  broom  in  whose  wooden  cross 
piece  is  a  little  reservoir  containing  a  spoonful 
of  kerosene.  This  escapes  in  barely  enough 
quantity  to  keep  the  hairs  oiled,  but  much  short 
of  dripping.  Housewives  know  that  a  few  drops 
of  kerosene  in  dishwashing  or  laundering  is  an 
excellent  cleanser.  It  is  an  excellent  germ  killer, 
too.  Such  a  broom,  therefore,  intelligently  used 
prevents  much  dust  flying  as  well  as  cleaning 
thoroly;  and  the  slight  odor,  as  I  specially 
noticed,  was  all  gone  before  school  opened  in  the 
morning  after  the  sweeping  of  the  night  before. 

I  have  askt  other  janitors  why  they  do  not  use 
this  broom.  They  replied  either  that  they 
"tried  it  but  it  got  out  of  order,"  or  that  they  had 
not  heard  of  it.  No  janitor  should  be  appointed 
without  mechanical  skill  to  keep  tools  in  order  and 
to  make  simple  repairs  about  the  building. 

A  few  janitors  pin  rough  cloth  (ingrain  carpet 
remnants  bought  from  factories  at  a  few  cents  a 
pound)  moistened  with  a  mixture  of  linseed  oil 
and  turpentine,  with  perhaps  a  little  paraffin 
added,  around  hair  brooms  and  get  admirable 
results,  a  clean  floor  that  hardly  soils  a  white 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  73 

handkerchief  rubbed  on  it,  and  this  with  the 
minimum  stirring  up  of  dust  in  the  air  when 
rightly  done.  Sawdust  wet  with  water  is  not 
good,  as  minute  splinters  remain  that  make  an 
irritating  dust  when  dry.  Even  in  stables  and 
cellars  it  has  this  objection.  Sawdust  that  has 
evenly  absorbed  a  little  oil  and  turpentine  is 
more  suitable  for  floors;  other  preparations  also 
are  used  to  moisten  it,  one  being  a  weak  solution 
of  formaldehyde  for  disinfecting  the  floor  once  a 
week.  It  is  important  that  the  sawdust  come  in 
contact  with  every  bit  of  the  surface  and  every 
particle  of  dust  on  the  floor;  but  often  it  lies  in 
masses  and  little  attempt  is  made  to  have  this 
done. 

There  is  one  positive  danger  in  using  any  of 
these  methods  for  lessening  dust.  It  is  that  some 
principals  and  janitors  assume  that  no  dust  rises, 
or  "not  enough  to  do  any  harm."  Janitors 
therefore  sweep  corridors,  and  even  rooms,  while 
schools  are  in  session  and  children  at  study  after 
school  hours.  I  have  more  than  once  seen  this 
done,  the  air  being  irritatingly  dusty  to  anyone 
not  determined  that  he  would  not  see  it — or  would 
not  admit  it.  My  impression  is  that  it  is  not  a 
very  uncommon  occurrence.  In  such  sweeping 
of  corridors  the  claim  that  the  doors  of  class 
rooms  are  closed  and  so  it  is  safe  to  sweep  is  not 
to  be  tolerated;  for  sometimes  I  have  seen  one  not 
closed,  and  frequently  I  have  seen  a  child  or 


74  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

several  people  passing  through  corridors  at  the 
time  of  sweeping  and  entering  rooms.  All  this  is 
even  more  serious  in  common  sweeping  with  straw 
brooms.  Children  and  teachers  are  shut  in  and 
cannot  help  themselves.  Mothers  can  stop  it 
if  they  will. 

The  health  officer  of  one  of  our  states  writes 
approvingly  of  a  lawsuit  against  school  authori- 
ties brought  by  parents  whose  child  was  un- 
doubtedly injured  by  the  unsanitariness  of  the 
school.  He  believes  the  quickest  way  of  bringing 
school  people  into  line  with  health  methods  is  a 
few  more  such  legal  processes. 

Wood  floors  properly  scrubbed  with  soap  and 
water  as  I  have  found  them  in  a  few  schools  are 
refreshingly  clean  and  smell  so;  but  even  hard- 
wood floors  will  wear  rough  and  splintery  with 
this  treatment.  One  school  with  clean  white 
floors,  and  fresh  sweet  air  has  one  of  its  three 
stories  scrubbed  every  Saturday  in  rotation,  so 
that  once  every  three  weeks  each  floor  is  thoroly 
cleaned.  Janitors  ordinarily,  however,  think 
scrubbing  floors  women's  work,  and  will  not  do  it 
themselves.  It  is  so  hard  and  disagreeable  that 
they  pronounce  it  "unnecessary,"  and  their 
opinion  has  prevailed. 

Linoleum  after  sweeping  with  a  hair  broom 
preferably  can  easily  be  cleaned  with  a  cloth 
slightly  moistened  with  oil  or  water;  or  the  oiled 
cloth  can  be  used  on  the  broom  in  sweeping. 


CLEAN  SGHOOLHOUSES  75 

One  of  the  best  helps  in  cleaning  floors  is  to  have 
either  movable  furniture,  as  a  few  schools  have, 
or  desk  and  seat  with  a  single,  perfectly  round 
or  oval  standard  having  no  crannies  for  dust  to 
collect  in  and  offering  fewer  obstacles  to  tools. 

Floors  should  be  left  as  dry  as  possible  after 
using  either  oil  or  water.  The  odor  of  dirty 
drying  oil  or  water  should  not  be  permitted,  and 
the  dried  deposit  is  so  much  more  dirt  on  the  floor. 
Such  a  detail  as  this  is  not  necessary  to  state  to  a 
good  housekeeper,  and  is  mentioned  here  to  add 
point  to  the  fact  that  with  any  good  method  must 
go  competent  supervision  to  ensure  its  proper 
use.  School  floors  should  be  cleaned  as  often 
as  necessary  to  keep  them  as  wholesome  as  in 
well  kept  homes. 


January 

Last  month  suggestions  were  made  for  the 
cleanliness  of  floors  in  ordinary  schoolhouses, 
such  as  mothers  find  have  been  erected  by 
ordinary  committees  in  ordinary  communities. 

But  occasionally  we  see  elaborate  buildings, 
tiled  floors  and  wainscotings,  vacuum  cleaners, 
a  generous  staff  of  caretakers  who  wipe  away  dust 
and  keep  surfaces  bright  thruout  the  day,  as  do 


76  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

the  maids  in  homes  of  wealth.  These  exceptions 
are  costly  and  the  all-round  results  are  not  always 
superior  to  what  we  find  in  much  less  pretentious 
buildings.  Indeed,  I  fancy  that  under  the  stimu- 
lus of  open  air  schools  and  school  gardens  these 
structures  will  be  out  of  date  before  many  years, 
and  we  shall  swing  over  to  less  extravagant  but 
more  wholesome  places  where  children  will  live 
a  less  artificial  life  as  training  for  a  saner  manhood 
and  womanhood.  That  word  should  be  noted — 
"places,"  not  buildings  merely. 

It  seems  desirable  that  wood  floors  should  be 
abandoned  in  school  buildings  as  they  already 
have  been  in  most  fine  public  structures.  One  of 
the  reasons  is  the  greater  difficulty  of  keeping 
them  clean  in  comparison  with  smoother  flooring 
materials.  Even  the  latter  demand  intelligence 
and  conscientiousness  in  the  care  of  them.  "Bat- 
tleship linoleum"  promises  to  be  as  nearly  an 
ideal  flooring  for  schools  as  for  hospitals  and  the 
navies  of  various  nations.  It  will  last  for  a 
quarter  century,  and  can  be  easily  renewed;  is 
elastic,  noiseless,  waterproof  and  fire  proof,  not 
easy  to  stain,  dirt  does  not  grind  into  it,  and  it 
comes  in  a  pleasant  solid  brown  color;  all  this 
for  not  far  from  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  a  square 
yard.  It  is  quarter  of  an  inch  thick,  made  of 
linseed  oil  and  ground  cork  on  a  foundation  of 
burlap  under  heavy  pressure,  with  a  smooth  finish 
that  is  easily  cleaned.  It  is  laid  by  a  special 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  77 

process  making  it  firm  and  free  from  cracks.  Any 
large  dealer  in  linoleums  can  provide  the  circulars 
telling  about  it.  I  have  not  seen  it  in  any  schools, 
but  have  seen  it  on  ferry  boats  and  in  large  public 
buildings,  as  institutes,  office  buildings,  churches, 
hospitals — the  last  being  the  beautiful  new  chil- 
dren's hospital  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  Medical 
School,  at  this  date  the  most  complete  in  every 
sanitary  detail  of  any  in  any  country.  Here  a 
kind  of  composition  is  used  for  the  baseboards 
which  curve  down  to  the  floor,  meeting  the  lin- 
oleum. All  cracks  have  the  hard  filling  that  has 
been  mentioned.  It  is  good  to  find  at  this  hospi- 
tal every  roof,  both  of  the  various  wings  and  of 
the  main  part,  utilized  for  outdoor  wards  and 
outdoor  sleeping  and  play. 

Whatever  the  floor  may  be,  a  committee  of 
mothers  should  watch  their  condition  in  a  co- 
operative spirit,  as  some  mothers'  committees 
have  helpt  in  the  matter  of  school  lunches. 


Lavatories  and  basements 

The  standards  of  cleanliness  for  water-closets, 
washbowls  and  basements  should  be,  also,  as  in 
the  best  homes.  Perfumed  "  disinfectants  "  should 
not  be  permitted.  They  do  not  disinfect.  Odor- 
less air  should  be  insisted  on.  Whenever  I  have 
enquired  how  some  specially  clean  and  fresh 
smelling  public  or  institutional  water-closet  was 


78  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

kept  so,  the  caretaker's  reply  has  been  "Plenty 
of  strong  soapsuds." 

A  few  pages  back  a  janitor  was  spoken  of 
whose  interest  in  a  handsome  floor  and  kerosene 
broom  proved  what  all  janitors  could  do  if  they 
would.  He  was  not  an  all-round  good  janitor, 
however,  for  the  odor  greeting  one  on  entering  his 
building  was  of  urinals  that  were  easily  located 
by  following  the  scent.  It  was  not  entirely  his 
fault,  for  they  were  wrongly  built  at  first,  and  no 
one  had  cared  enough  about  it  to  alter  them. 
Fancy  the  mother  or  father  of  one  son  in  a  forty 
thousand  dollar  house  who  would  let  such  a 
mistake  go  eight  years — or  eight  months!  But 
here  were  only — thousands  of  everyone's  sons  and 
daughters  under  the  care  of  the  city  fathers. 

The  condition  is  true  of  many  schools,  and, 
indeed,  of  the  science  (!)  building  of  a  famous 
New  England  university.  Befoulment  of  the 
air  is  not  the  most  important  result  of  these 
dirty  water-closets.  The  uncleanness  of  which 
the  odors  warn  us  may  be  accompanied  by  con- 
tagious disease  germs,  such  as  the  gonococcus 
freshly  deposited,  or  typhoid  bacilli,  and  others. 
Medical  inspection  is  discovering  that  gonococcus 
infection  is  occasionally  found  among  school  chil- 
dren and  caretakers,  as  are  typhoid,  tuberculosis 
and  other  germs.  They  may  all  be  communi- 
cated by  use  of  common  towel  and  water-closet, 
as  they  are  by  sleeping  with  or  being  cared  for  by 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  79 

infected  parents  and  nurses.  Altogether  too  few 
schools  make  sufficient  provision  for  hand  washing 
after  leaving  water-closets,  one  of  the  most  needed 
habits  to  cultivate  in  this  country  among  children 
at  school  and  at  home.  Some  schools  are  provid- 
ing paper  hand  towels  for  washbowls;  others 
require  each  child  to  have  its  own  towel  and  to  be 
responsible  for  its  laundering.  It  should  be  held 
criminal  to  have  either  a  common  towel  or  com- 
mon cup.  The  method  of  supplying  tissue  toilet 
paper  is  also  another  subject  for  mothers  to  attend 
to.  There  are  odd  ways. 

In  country  places  where  outhouses  are  used  the 
same  standards  of  cleanliness  must  in  some  way  be 
secured  for  the  good  of  the  children.  There  is 
here  the  additional  problem  of  flies  that  carry 
filth  from  the  vault  to  every  object  they  light  on, 
children's  faces,  books,  luncheons.  The  house 
fly  is  being  called  the  "typhoid  fly  "  as  it  is  known 
to  carry  bacilli  from  typhoid  discharges  to  the 
well.  It  is  coming  to  be  well  known  that  the 
Japanese  in  their  war  with  Russia  lost  almost  no 
soldiers  from  typhoid  fever  partly  because  they 
covered  all  excreta  away  from  flies,  filth  carriers. 
They  proved  better  sanitarians  than  the  Ameri- 
cans in  the  Cuban  war  who  left  their  trenches 
open,  as  many  schoolhouses  still  do,  and  lost 
many  more  men  by  typhoid  then  were  killed  by 
the  enemy.  In  "American  Schoolhouses,"  a 
bulletin  of  the  Bureau  of  Education  that  should 


80  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

be  in  the  public  library,  mothers  can  obtain 
further  information  concerning  this  detail  of 
country  schools.  They  should  see  that  vaults 
are  cleaned  frequently  and  kept  well  sprinkled 
with  lime;  but  if  any  residences  in  the  vicinity 
have  modern  plumbing,  why  not  the  school- 
house? 


The  common  cup:  emergencies 

Our  topic  is  clean  schoolhouses,  and  it  is  fair 
to  call  the  common  cup  a  part  of  the  schoolhouse 
since  it  is  chained  to  the  wall. 

The  sooner  mothers  insist  on  its  banishment, 
the  safer  their  children  will  be  from  other  chil- 
dren's sore  lips,  sore  mouths,  poison  of  decaying 
teeth  and  sore  throats.  The  germs  of  tuberculosis, 
diphtheria,  scarlet  fever,  measles,  pneumonia,  and 
other  disease  germs  are  often  in  the  mouths  of  the 
well.  These  children  and  people  are  called 
"carriers."  Dr.  C.  V.  Chapin  and  others  have 
shown  that  contact  with  these  "carriers,"  as  by 
their  saliva  on  a  cup,  causes  many  illnesses. 
Before  children  are  known  to  be  "coming  down" 
with  a  contagious  disease  their  saliva  may  be  left 
on  the  cup  for  the  next  user  to  drink. 

Specialists  who  have  examined  school  cups 
find  under  the  microscope  thousands  of  cells 
from  the  skin  and  lining  of  the  mouth,  with  thou- 
sands of  bacteria  clinging  to  them,  some  of  the 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  81 

bacteria  being  those  causing  illnesses.  The  lips 
and  saliva  when  a  child  is  drinking  always  touch 
the  cup.  Every  "catching"  thing  one  child  has 
who  uses  it  those  who  come  after  him  are  liable 
to  get.  It  is  truly  astounding  that,  well  known  as 
this  is,  there  are  hundreds  of  schools,  yes,  thou- 
sands, from  New  England  to  the  Pacific  still  using 
the  common  cup.  It  is  eloquent  testimony  to 
the  indifference  of  American  fathers  and  mothers 
to  the  welfare  of  their  children. 

There  are  two  books  the  public  library  should 
provide  for  mothers'  clubs  to  use  in  this  connec- 
tion. One  is  Dr.  Chapin's  Sources  and  Modes  of 
Infection  where  can  be  read  the  latest  facts  that 
are  discovered  about  "carriers,"  whether  they  are 
well  or  ill  people,  or  insects,  or  water  or  milk.  The 
living  germs  conveyed  by  these  carriers  cause 
illnesses.  Time,  drying  and  sunlight  kill  very 
many  bacteria  in  a  few  hours  or  days  after  they 
leave  the  carrier;  a  few  others  may  live  for  a 
month  or  longer.  So  that  it  is  really  contact  with 
people  more  than  with  things  that  is  dangerous. 
Touching  the  fresh  saliva  or  any  other  discharge 
from  people  is  practically  contact  with  them. 

The  other  book  is  The  Human  Body  and  Health 
by  the  professor  of  biology  at  Lafayette  College, 
Alvin  Davison.  The  illustrations  on  pages  261, 
263  and  265  are  true  reproductions  from  life  of 
what  anyone  looking  thru  a  microscope  finds  that 
people  leave  on  drinking  cups.  Whether  or  not 
6 


82  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

the  text  is  read,  it  does  not  seem  possible  that  any 
mother  after  seeing  the  pictures  can  allow  her 
child  to  use  a  common  cup  at  school,  or  on  a  train, 
or  at  a  public  fountain. 

But  must  children  go  thirsty?  We  have 
already  discust  some  of  the  reasons  why  they 
should  have  plenty  of  water.  They  need  not  go 
without  it  so  long  as  they  can  find  a  piece  of  paper 
eight  inches  square.  Even  clean  newspaper  is 
safer  than  the  common  cup;  but  a  piece  of  fresh 
writing  or  wrapping  paper  would  be  better.  Of 
course  there  are  "germs"  on  clean  paper,  but  in 
all  probability  not  disease  germs. 

Fold  the  square  diagonally.  Next  fold  the 
two  distant  corners  over  on  opposite  sides  until 
the  tips  touch  the  opposite  edges;  crease  them 
down;  separate  the  two  layers  of  the  middle 
corner,  crease  one  over  in  one  direction  as  far  as 
it  will  go,  and  the  other  over  in  the  other  direction. 
If,  now,  the  two  edges  left  are  opened  with  the 
fingers,  there  is  a  substantial  cup  for  one  or  two 
"glasses"  of  water. 

Get  the  teacher  to  have  all  her  children  make 
paper  cups.  They  are  likely  to  find  it  the  most 
interesting  lesson  in  "physiology"  they  have  ever 
had,  for  she  will  explain  the  reasons  for  individual 
cups  while  they  make  them.  They  can  use  cups 
until  the  city  fathers  make  up  their  minds  to  put 
in  bubble  fountains  or  faucets  by  which  children 
can  drink  from  a  little  jet  of  water  without  touch- 
ing anything. 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  83 

Kansas,  Michigan  and  Mississippi  first  adopted 
regulations  against  the  common  cup  in  schools  and 
railway  trains  (1909). 

Massachusetts,  Wisconsin  and  California  were 
the  first  to  enact  laws  forbidding  it  in  schools,  on 
railway  trains  and  in  other  public  places.  Two 
winters  ago  (1911)  it  was  amusing  to  watch  pas- 
sengers on  trains  from  Boston  turn  away  from  the 
cupless  watertanks;  but  when  the  Rhode  Island 
border  was  reacht  the  common  cup  was  brought 
out,  and  all  the  way  to  New  York,  Philadelphia 
and  Washington  every  user — !  Mothers  even 
put  it  to  the  sweet  lips  of  their  babies!  This 
winter,  however,  it  is  equally  entertaining — and 
encouraging — to  see  how,  law  or  no  law  in  the 
state  thru  which  the  train  is  passing,  nearly  every 
passenger  has  his  own  cup. 

Professor  Elizabeth  Gaines  of  the  department 
of  biology  at  Adelphi  Academy,  with  many  school 
teachers,  began  using  the  paper  cup  we  have 
described  during  epidemics  of  diphtheria  and 
scarlet  fever  in  Brooklyn,  and  led  in  another 
movement  that  mothers'  clubs  could  undertake 
in  their  own  communities  where  the  feather 
duster,  common  cup  and  dirty,  badly  ventilated 
schoolrooms  exist.  The  New  York  School  Hy- 
giene Association  of  which  Professor  Gaines  was 
president  sent  to  the  Board  of  Education  a 
petition  signed  by  parents  asking 

1.  That  the  common  drinking  cup  be  abolisht 
in  the  schools,  giving  facts  and  the  reasons. 


84  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

2.  That  the  feather  duster  be  abolisht,  moist 
sweeping  be  required;  and  better  methods 
of  cleaning  and  ventilating  be  provided  in 
new  buildings,  giving  facts  and  reasons. 

3.  That  specific  rules  for  cleaning  be  made  by 
experts,  and  janitors  be  required  to  observe 
them,  using  some  of  the  arguments  from 
the  preceding  pages. 

4.  That  better  provision  for  class  instruction 
in  hygiene  be  made. 

Soon  after  the  Brooklyn  schools  began  using 
the  paper  cup  an  enthusiast  sent  about  a  thousand 
New  Year's  greetings  with  the  cup  anonymously 
to  as  many  health  officers  and  school  men.  Pretty 

soon  it  appeared  under  the  name  of  the  "Dr. 

cup,"  and  a  little  later  differences  of  opinion  arose 
among  school  men  who  wanted  to  patent  it !  Of 
course  its  real  value  is  that  children  can  always 
make  their  own  cups  wherever  they  may  need 
them.  Apparently  the  paper  cup  is  a  valuable 
sanitary  asset. 

One  superintendent  writes:  "I  hope  the  time 
will  come  when  we  can  have  the  sanitary  drinking 
fountain  in  all  the  schools.  Until  that  time,  this 
seems  to  be  an  excellent  and  inexpensive  means 
of  meeting  the  serious  situation  presented  by 
either  the  common  drinking  cup  or  supplying  the 
individual  cups  of  the  ordinary  type.  I  will  see 
what  can  be  done  to  encourage  the  making  and 
use  of  this  paper  cup."  The  objections  to  children 


CLEAN  SGHOOLHOUSES  85 

having  their  private  cups  are  that  they  do  not 
keep  them  clean,  and  lending  a  cup  to  a  thirsty 
friend  is  a  courtesy  that  teachers  cannot  quite 
so  easily  criticize  as  they  can  "swapping  chewing 
gum."  Unless  one  knows  something  better,  this 
extemporized  cup  is  a  good  makeshift  anywhere 
to  avoid  public  cups.  The  common  drinking  cup 
is  dangerous. 


February 

Walls  and  windows 

The  worst  schoolroom  walls  I  have  ever  hap- 
pened to  see  were  not  long  ago  in  a  famous  state 
with  four  syllables  in  its  name,  and  in  a  few  places 
just  over  its  borders — not  always  obscure  villages, 
but  in  at  least  one  large  and  often-heard-of  school. 
They  were  papered  walls  (ugly  paper,  too,  inciden- 
tally) and  sometimes  two  or  three  layers  deep,  with 
torn  and  loosened  fragments. 

Good  housekeepers  have  old  paper  removed  and 
walls  cleaned  before  the  new  is  put  on.  The 
pastes  and  papers  absorb  odors  and  dampness,  and 
lodge  molds,  vermin,  micro-organisms  and  dust, 
affecting  the  atmosphere  of  the  room  more  or 
less.  These  papered  walls  are  as  bad  as  what  I 
omitted  mentioning  having  seen  in  talking  about 


86  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

clean  floors — carpeted  kindergartens.  In  three 
schools  I  have  seen  ingrain  or  brussels  carpets  put 
down  because  the  floors  were  splintered,  or 
because  in  some  games  the  children  must  sit  on 
the  floor  and  it  is  cold  in  winter  or  "so  very  dirty." 

The  fact  should  be  recalled  that  the  younger 
children  are,  the  more  rapid  their  vital  processes; 
they  are  growing  faster;  therefore  the  effects  of 
dust  inhaled  are  more  far  reaching,  one  of  the 
reasons  for  the  increase  of  tuberculosis  all  thru 
school  life,  and  for  the  so-called  "school  fatigue." 
They  should  have  the  best  surroundings  like  the 
high  school,  not  the  dirtiest.  The  same  process 
of  reasoning  also  applies  to  the  quality  of  teaching. 

The  smooth  easily  cleaned  linoleum  that  has 
been  advised  for  splintered  floors  would  be  cold, 
too.  There  might  be  experimenting  with  art 
squares  that  can  be  hung  out  of  doors  and  beaten 
every  night,  and  not  laid  until  just  before  school 
opens,  with  properly  adjustable  floor  fastenings. 
But  with  the  many  health  difficulties  and  practical 
difficulties  perhaps  normal  children  can  be  better 
grown  without  "floor  games."  Or  we  might 
learn  lessons  of  the  clean  floors  of  Eastern  races 
who  do  not  use  chairs,  who  sometimes  use  rugs 
also,  and  put  off  their  street  shoes  at  the  entrances 
of  their  houses. 

To  return  to  school  walls — they  are  sometimes 
defaced  by  scribbling,  handmarks  and  other 
spots  of  several  years  standing,  especially  the 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  87 

water-closets.  Some  walls  are  so  dark  in  color 
that  light  in  the  room  is  lessened  and  children 
weary  from  efforts  to  see;  or  so  pale  and  white 
with  bright  windows  that  eyes  are  dazzled  and 
nerves  are  tired.  In  both  cases  permanent  injury 
to  the  eyes  is  liable  to  result,  if  not  to  the  nervous 
system.  There  are  broken  walls  and  ceilings, 
adding  to  the  dustiness;  and  rough  finisht  walls, 
every  little  projection  a  settling  place  for  dust 
that  slight  air  currents  start  floating  again  in  the 
air  children  have  to  breathe. 

Mothers  have  no  more  moral  right  to  allow 
government  authorities,  committees  or  any  other 
power  to  place  their  children  in  surroundings  that 
injure  health  than  they  have  themselves  to  keep 
such  surroundings.  Mothers  are  responsible  for 
knowing  that  the  environment  is  a  safe  one.  So 
are  fathers.  If  an  unhealthful  one,  the  fact  that 
school  authorities  keep  it  so  does  not  lessen 
parents'  duties — each  parent's — to  prevent  it. 
The  duties  of  parenthood  cannot  be  shuffled  off 
on  paid  or  elected  officials.  Parents  must  still 
hold  such  officials  up  to  the  duties  they  are  paid 
or  elected  to  perform — in  this  instance  to  develop 
potential  fathers  and  mothers  with  healthy  bodies, 
minds  and  ideals. 

Mothers'  clubs,  better  than  an  individual  alone 
with  no  backing  in  numbers,  can  study  the  clean- 
liness of  a  school  and  "make  the  best  of"  bad 
floors  and  bad  walls  by  intelligent  effort.  Except 


88  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

in  the  nine  equal  suffrage  states  mothers  have 
rather  helplessly  to  take  things  as  they  find  them 
and  make  the  best  of  them,  as  they  have  long  had 
to  do  in  poorly  constructed  and  finisht  houses — 
not  a  bad  training  of  the  wits  for  bettering  school 
conditions.  Only  one  needs  to  be  sure  that  the 
proposed  change  is  really  an  improvement,  and  does 
not  add  more  details  for  overworkt  teachers  to 
see  to. 

It  is  not  a  great  expense  to  remove  wall  paper 
(wetting  it  first  to  prevent  dust  flying  and  to  save 
the  workmen  from  it),  clean  and  paint  the  walls. 
Oil  paints  are  always  at  hand;  their  application 
is  understood  everywhere.  Smooth  painted  walls 
can  be  washt;  wiped  down  with  dry  mop  to 
remove  dust;  they  are  non-absorbent  and  durable. 
The  glossiness  of  some  paints  should  be  avoided, 
for  like  the  glossy  printed  page,  it  is  bad  for  the 
eyes.  There  are  numerous  tinted  washes  also, 
some  less  expensive  than  paint,  as  easily  applied 
as  paint  or  more  so,  their  re-application  being  no 
more  work  than  washing  painted  walls. 

Ceilings  should  be  white,  thus  sending  more 
light  down  to  the  desks;  but  white  walls  are  trying 
to  the  eyes  in  a  strong  light.  In  sunny  bright 
rooms  walls  of  pale  green,  a  very  pale  gray  green, 
not  a  hard  yellow  green,  are  artistic  and  restful 
to  eyes  and  nerves.  In  north  or  darkish  rooms 
pale  buff  or  ecru  reflect  a  sunny  light.  It  is  worth 
while  to  consult  some  one  with  a  fine  eye  for 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  89 

shades  of  color  (mothers  supplying  the  sanitary 
ideas),  for  a  profound  impression  on  good  taste 
as  well  as  on  health  is  made  by  children's  school 
environment,  even  by  the  tint  of  walls.  A 
beautiful  shade  need  cost  no  more  than  a  crude 
one. 

Whatever  the  colors,  good  school  housekeepers 
will  see  that  walls  are  kept  clean  and  dusted  as 
necessary,  either  with  dry  mops  or  with  soft 
absorbent  cloth  fastened  around  brooms.  Some 
walls  need  cleaning  oftener  than  others  for  reasons 
explained  further  on. 

Decorations  also  are  a  problem  in  wall  sanita- 
tion. Many  walls  .in  rooms  of  the  younger  grades 
are  more  or  less  covered  with  paper  festoons, 
greens,  banners,  drawings  on  paper  by  the  pupils, 
etc.  These  temporarily  in  place  serve  their 
immediate  good  purposes;  but  should  be  carefully 
taken  down  after  a  week  of  dust  deposits  and 
removed  out  of  doors  for  cleaning  if  any  are  to  be 
preserved.  Much  of  this  is  not  the  kind  of  decora- 
tion for  which  we  wish  the  country  to  acquire 
a  liking,  and  it  soon  becomes  unsanitary. 

A  few  good  pictures,  pictures  with  a  mission, 
or  even  one,  placed  in  good  light,  framed  in  natural 
woods  with  soft  finish  showing  the  grain,  can  be 
easily  dusted,  and,  if  chosen  with  good  judgment, 
can  be  used  to  interest  and  educate  children  in 
health  ideas  still  further.  Often  one  sees  pictures 
that  provoke  the  question,  "Why  here";  pictures 
that  the  pupils  and  sometimes  the  teachers  know 


90  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

nothing  about,  or  next  to  nothing.  They  have 
been  seen  daily,  but  with  "eyes  that  see  not." 

I  have  often  wisht  that  there  could  be  placed 
in  a  few  hundred  schools  a  large  portrait  of 
Pasteur,  with  the  story  of  his  life  (that  is  as 
fascinating  as  a  novel)  in  the  school  library,  and 
then  see  what  would  result  if  mothers'  clubs 
stimulated  questions  year  after  year  about  the 
man  and  his  service  to  us  all.  It  could  be  made 
the  means  of  creating  as  high  ideals  of  patriotism 
by  right  living  as  portraits  and  stories  of  Washing- 
ton and  Lincoln. 

History  and  science  are  both  more  alive  to 
children  when  some  one  or  some  thing  "stands 
for"  either.  A  portrait  of  Walter  Scott  leads 
from  his  "life  story"  to  history  and  good  fiction; 
of  Maria  Mitchell,  to  the  greatness  of  the  universe 
outside  the  earth  and  to  the  affection  and  possi- 
bilities in  plain  living  and  high  thinking.  If  a 
picture  is  worth  room  on  school  walls  it  should  be 
a  means  of  right  education,  since  it  inevitably  has 
an  influence,  and  much  study  can  be  put  in  select- 
ing one. 

Windows  should  be  washt  at  least  three  times 
during  the  school  year,  with  water  in  which  is  a 
little  kerosene,  which  is  cheaper  and  gives  an 
easier  and  more  lasting  clearness  than  sand  soaps 
or  other  soaps  that  after  the  first  rain  are  often 
followed  by  streaks  and  cloudiness;  kerosene  is 
also  more  comfortable  for  the  hands  in  cold 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  91 

weather.  These  washings  should  come  in  Sep- 
tember and  late  December,  just  before  schools 
open,  and  in  February.  The  spring  months 
invite  open  windows  and  have  more  light,  so  that 
when  more  than  three  washings  are  impossible, 
these  months  are  safest  for  omitting  them;  also, 
sunny  rooms  with  bright  light  can  be  safely 
omitted  when  necessary  for  the  sake  of  north  and 
poorly  lighted  rooms,  whose  windows  must  be 
kept  constantly  clear. 

Eyes  are  workt  by  tiny  muscles  controlled 
by  nerves  running  to  the  brain.  Just  like  any 
o^her  muscles,  if  these  are  strained  by  trying  to 
do  their  work  under  bad  conditions  they  get  out  of 
order  and  defects  of  vision  result;  and  just  like 
other  nerves,  if  the  will  forces  these  to  work  under 
difficulties — too  little  light  or  light  of  a  bad  kind, 
they  become  exhausted  and  other  defects  of  vision 
may  result. 

There  is  a  close  sympathy  between  all  parts 
of  the  nervous  system,  so  that  when  the  feet  are 
tired,  for  example,  or  the  ears  from  listening  to  the 
racket  of  machinery  all  day,  we  "feel  tired  all 
over."  In  the  same  way  tired  eyes  make  children 
tired  all  over,  and  permanent  defects  in  vision 
cause  them  to  tire  more  easily,  possibly  to  have 
various  nervous  disorders,  headaches  or  indiges- 
tion, that  wearing  suitable  glasses  will  sometimes 
relieve;  but  the  child  is  handicapped  for  life. 
This  also  is  a  part  of  "  school  fatigue." 


92  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

Those  who  damage  children  in  this  way  should 
be  punishable  as  are  street  car  companies  or 
factory  owners  when  life,  limb  or  health  is  lost 
because  suitable  precautions  are  not  taken. 
Neither  means  to  do  the  harm,  they  state;  but 
— I  have  just  come  from  a  new  school  building 
one  side  of  which  is  so  shaded  by  the  neighboring 
structure  that  the  gas  was  lighted  all  this  slightly 
cloudy  morning.  The  harm  that  this  is  doing  can 
never  be  undone  by  explanations  of  officials — the 
same  that  the  voters  elect  year  after  year  and  do 
not  call  to  account  for  such  an  outrage  as  this. 
With  our  abundance  of  land,  of  light  and  of  good 
air,  there  is  no  right  reason  for  depriving  children 
of  all  they  need  for  health. 

Windows  sufficiently  clean  to  allow  ample 
light  to  come  thru  are  then  a  factor  in  health. 
Much  depends  on  the  adjustment  of  shades,  which 
must  not  allow  direct  sunlight  on  the  desks  or 
reflected  from  a  light  or  glossy  surface  into  the 
eyes.  The  best  light  is  had  when  shades  pull 
up  from  the  bottom,  letting  a  diffused  light  pour 
down  from  above;  but  they  are  little  used.  One 
girl  said,  "They  make  me  feel  lonesome."  They 
may  produce  a  shut-in  feeling,  but  this  is  not  a 
good  reason  for  not  having  them. 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  93 

March 

An  interlude 

While  these  chapters  are  going  into  details  of 
schoolhouse  keeping  necessary  to  provide  good 
air  for  children,  another  method  of  securing  it  is 
growing  fast,  and  will  profoundly  modify  school 
methods,  I  am  confident,  both  in  the  direction 
of  health  and  of  economy  as  well. 

In  memory  of  their  little  daughter  of  twelve 
years  who  died,  a  Chicago  father  and  mother 
establisht  a  fund  for  the  benefit  of  other  children. 
With  the  income  several  wise  movements  have 
been  aided,  but  none  better  or  greater  than  the 
movement  for  open  air  schools,  which  began  in 
Providence  a  few  years  ago. 

Dr.  Ellen  A.  Stone  and  Dr.  Mary  S.  Packard, 
after  a  summer's  experience  with  a  play  school  for 
delicate  and  tuberculous  children  on  the  shady 
southern  lawn  of  the  former's  home,  secured  the 
consent  and  cooperation  of  the  superintendent 
of  health  and  school  committee  in  taking  out 
the  whole  southern  side  of  a  schoolroom  and 
opening  the  first  "Fresh  Air  School"  in  this 
country.  Many  such  rooms  better  than  this  one 
now  exist  in  different  states,  and  they  are  multi- 
plying rapidly;  but  "  Jest  le  premier  pas  qui  coute." 

A  charming  little  book,  illustrated,  has  just 
been  publisht,  "Open  Air  Crusaders:  A  Report 
of  the  Elizabeth  McCormick  Open  Air  School," 
with  this  dedication:  "To  the  memory  of  Eliza- 


94  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

beth,  Daughter  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cyrus  Hall 
McCormick,  a  child  whose  radiant  young  life  was 
so  marked  by  deeds  of  kindliness  to  others  that 
these  ministries  of  love  were  not  allowed  to  cease 
when,  at  the  age  of  twelve,  she  was  called  into  the 
presence  of  the  Great  Friend  of  all  the  children." 

There  is  no  healthier  philosophy  than  this — to 
multiply  one's  own  work  for  good  so  that  the 
ministries  of  the  lost  one  may  not  cease. 

The  title  page  states  that  thru  the  generosity 
of  the  trustees  of  the  fund  the  United  Charities 
of  Chicago  is  enabled  to  place  this  book  before 
the  public  free  of  charge.  In  reply  to  a  letter 
asking  whether  the  demand  would  be  too  great 
if  the  secretary  of  every  mothers'  or  parent- 
teacher  association  asked  for  a  copy,  the  General 
Superintendent  replied:  "We  are  anxious  that 
it  should  be  put  to  the  widest  possible  use,  and 
I  can  think  of  no  way  in  which  it  would  more 
quickly  reach  the  very  persons  whom  we  are 
wanting  to  interest  in  the  work  than  by  the  sug- 
gestion that  mothers'  clubs  and  parent-teacher 
associations  make  it  the  subject  of  discussion. 
We  are  prepared  to  meet  a  reasonably  large 
demand  for  the  book."  The  first  edition  was 
exhausted  in  a  few  days,  and  now  many  more  have 
been  issued.  It  can  be  obtained  for  the  asking  by 
addressing  the  United  Charities  of  Chicago,  51 
LaSalle  Street. 

A  program  whose  speakers  are  a  medical  in- 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  95 

specter,  school  nurse,  and  the  superintendents 
of  health  and  of  schools  can  bring  this  very  impor- 
tant advance  before  the  friends  of  a  mothers' 
club.  Where  the  subject  has  been  already  dis- 
cust,  but  there  is  not  yet  an  open  air  room  in 
every  new  schoolhouse  planned,  and  in  at  least 
one  old  building  in  every  neighborhood,  then  it 
should  be  presented  again  with  the  determination 
that  something  more  than  mere  talk  shall  follow. 
There  are  occasional  mothers  who  have  for  their 
little  children  of  about  kindergarten  or  primary 
ages  a  "home  open  air  school,"  and  near  by 
mothers  are  delighted  when  permitted  to  send  their 
own  children  to  these  happy  places. 

Mothers  have  a  large  measure  of  responsibility 
for  the  bad  conditions  in  so  many  schools,  even 
when  they  have  not  the  power  to  discharge  their 
responsibility  effectively.  But  all  are  soon  to 
have  this  power.  The  signs  of  the  times  are  un- 
mistakable, and  there  is  no  higher  law  resting 
on  them  than  this  of  responsibility  for  children 
wherever  children  may  be  in  the  community — home 
or  school,  street  or  work  place,  place  of  entertain- 
ment or  of  recreation. 


96  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

April 

Streets  and  housecleaning 

A  Chicago  mother  wrote  me  not  long  ago:  "I 
have  found  rooms  74°  and  76°  and  even  82°, 
and  the  teachers  wearing  'peek-a-boo'  waists, 
while  the  children  wore  woolen  underwear  and 
dresses  suitable  for  winter  in  this  climate.  Some 
schools  use  soft  coal,  and  we  have  to  strain  the 
air.  I  put  cheesecloth  over  the  open  bedroom 
windows  with  thumb  tacks.  There  is  a  school 
where  the  in-take  for  air  is  over  garbage  pails  of 
families  living  across  the  alley;  the  outlet  is  over 
the  girls'  playground!" 

This  all  reads  true,  for  one  can  find  the  like 
in  other  places.  The  good  thing  here  is  that  at 
least  one  mother  has  cared,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
she  has  made  others  care,  too,  since  she  has  been 
so  wise  as  to  look  into  conditions.  Evidently 
"clean  schoolhouses "  require  attention  to  other 
details  besides  floors,  walls,  windows  and  furnish- 
ings. 

Cleaning  school  buildings  is  made  unnecessa- 
rily difficult,  even  useless  sometimes,  by  certain 
factors  outside  the  building.  Dirty  streets  are 
one.  Streets  are  unnecessarily  dirty  because 
they  are  either  badly  cared  for  or  badly  made. 
Their  dust  as  every  housewife  knows,  can  in  a 
few  blustering  hours  entirely  undo  wearisome 
and  expensive  labors. 

Such  dust  is  brought  in  on  children's  shoes,  or 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  97 

blown  in  around  windows  and  doors  or  through 
the  cold  air  box  of  the  furnace.  It  is,  as  has  been 
said  already,  made  up  not  of  sand  alone,  but  of 
dried  manure,  sputum  and  other  animal  waste,  of 
house  and  shop  sweepings,  ashes,  soot,  particles 
of  iron,  glass,  tobacco  and  other  vegetable  mate- 
rial. It  contains  but  few  germs  of  tuberculosis 
and  other  diseases,  and  abounds  in  pus  germs. 

These  irritating  and  poisonous  particles  drawn 
in  thru  nose  and  throat  irritate  and  poison  the 
delicate  mucous  membrane  lining  of  nose,  throat 
and  bronchial  tubes,  causing  much  catarrhal 
trouble.  Physicians  whose  specialty  is  diseases 
of  nose  and  throat  look  for  many  more  cases  of 
"cold  in  the  head,"  "sore  throat"  and  bronchitis 
after  wind  storms;  chronic  catarrh  is  aggravated 
in  dusty  weather.  Adenoids  and  adenoid  con- 
ditions, tonsilitis,  tuberculosis  and  some  other 
germ  diseases  that  affect  the  respiratory  passages 
develop  more  easily  in  this  catarrhal  tissue. 
Autopsies  show  that  city  dwellers'  lungs,  instead 
of  a  healthy  pink,  are  more  often  a  dirty  dark 
color  like  the  lungs  of  those  working  in  coal  mines 
and  in  other  dusty  occupations,  with  fibrous 
thickenings  and  nodules  where  more  or  less 
inflammatory  changes  have  taken  place.  These 
inflammations  are  not  enough  perhaps  always  to 
make  people  ill  in  bed,  but  they  lessen  vitality 
and  predispose  to  disease. 

This  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  country  life, 
7 


98  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

"other  things  being  equal,"  is  healthier  than  city 
life  where  fifteen  hundred  times  as  many  dust 
particles  float  in  the  air  we  breathe.  We  have 
spoken  of  the  high  death  rate  from  tuberculosis 
among  teachers,  and  the  very  large  amount  of 
tuberculosis  among  children  that  increases  thru 
school  years,  except  among  "open  air  school" 
children.  This  street  dust  trackt  and  blown 
in  is  an  important  part  of  such  ill  health,  altho 
not  the  whole  cause. 

Streets  can  injure  health  in  another  way,  as  we 
found  in  our  study  of  school  fatigue  last  year.  I 
know  a  school  placed  in  the  sharp  angle  between 
two  streets  paved  with  cobble  stones  over  which 
heavy  wagons  travel.  The  noise  is  so  great  that 
teachers  unconsciously  develop  unpleasant  voices 
in  their  efforts  to  be  heard.  Both  teachers  and 
pupils  feel  the  strain  of  this  almost  continuous 
bombardment  of  their  ears.  Noisy  and  dusty 
streets  around  schools  are  common. 

We  must  aim  to  have  some  day  soon  every 
school  in  the  midst  of  grass,  trees  and  gardens — 
children's  gardens  which  they  care  for  as  a  part  of 
their  education.  We  have  the  land,  the  money 
and  the  children — everything  but  the  intelligence 
to  so  adjust  them  as  to  bring  it  about.  This  will 
come  after  a  few  thousand — or  must  it  be  millions 
— more  lives  have  been  sacrificed  in  teaching  the 
lesson.  We  shall  arrive. 

Meanwhile  superintendents  of  streets,  public 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  99 

opinion  and  politics  must  be  won  over  to  the  cause 
of  dustless,  quiet  highways  around  homes  and 
schools;  it  is  also  possible  to  have  them  around 
many  business  places  as  a  few  are  showing. 
Mothers'  clubs  can  do  much  to  help  this  along. 
One  meeting  every  year  with  speakers  from  among 
those  directly  working  in  the  department  of 
streets  of  the  local  government,  as  well  as  from 
among  those  interested  in  the  health  and  in  the 
housekeeping  sides,  with  a  good  account  of  it  in 
the  newspapers,  and  with  an  active  committee 
that  pushes  the  matter  along  even  when  not  on 
the  program  of  a  meeting,  will  accomplish  things 
worth  while.  Talking  merely  is  not  enough. 

One  topic  might  well  be,  "What  is  the  least 
dusty  and  noisy  material  for  street  paving?'* 
It  is  much  more  interesting  than  it  sounds.  I 
remember  a  discussion  on  it  among  Boston  physi- 
cians a  few  years  ago  that  was  publisht  in  the 
Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  August  2 
and  September  6, 1900.  If  it  is  not  in  the  medical 
library  of  the  city,  or  cannot  be  borrowed  from 
one  of  the  physicians,  it  can  be  bought  for  twenty 
cents  sent  to  the  office  of  the  Journal  in  Boston. 
Mothers'  clubs  can  make  the  subject  so  popular 
that  sensible  articles  may  be  found  more  often. 

Another  good  topic  is,  "Shall  we  have  oil  or 
water  sprinkling?"  Another  is,  "Shall  street 
cleaning  be  allowed  when  streets  are  dry  ? ' '  There 
are  usually  two  sides  (at  least)  to  public  questions, 


100  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

and  the  wise  club  will  hear  both;  but  make  up  its 
own  mind  in  accordance  with  the  interests  of  the 
children  and  family. 

Meanwhile,  too,  janitors  with  the  extra  work 
caused  by  bad  management  of  streets  are  not 
only  obliged  to  clean  the  inside  of  the  buildings, 
but  like  other  housekeepers  need  to  devise  ways 
for  keeping  out  dust  and  mud.  There  is  the 
problem  of  door  mats.  What  kind  wears  longest, 
cleans  shoes  best,  and  can  be  kept  cleanest? 
Several  have  told  me  that  woven  wire  mats  are 
best  in  these  ways.  Some  janitors,  on  stormy 
days,  have  brushes  at  the  entrance  for  cleaning 
shoes  before  children  go  in.  The  brush  part  of 
old  hair  brooms  removed  from  the  handle  and  cut 
in  two  brushes  is  economy  and  quite  effective. 
Here  is  another  condition  that  provokes  us  to  ask 
about  the  Oriental  custom  of  removing  street 
shoes  and  putting  on  house  slippers  at  entrances. 
Street  shoes,  long  street  skirts,  and  dirty  streets 
are  a  trio  of  nuisances  that  must  be  replaced  by 
clean  practices. 

Quite  as  important  as  the  care  of  air  after  it 
has  come  thru  the  cold  ah-  box  is  the  kind  of  air 
that  comes  thru  it.  There  are  cold  air  boxes 
drawing  their  supply  of  "fresh"  air  from  the  level 
of  sidewalks  and  streets,  and  the  pipe  of  the  pass- 
ing smoker  is  distinctly  smelt  in  the  house;  if 
tobacco  smoke,  then  of  course,  any  other  smell 
from  passers-by  is  drawn  in  as  well  as  dust.  To 


CLEAN  SGHOOLHOUSES          101 

be  sure  there  may  not  be  disease  germs  in  this 
air,  but  is  it  what  it  should  be  for  children's  air 
supply?  It  is  not  thought  to  be  so,  and  architects 
and  builders  writing  on  the  subject  positively 
condemn  such  locating  of  the  fresh  air  box. 

Sometimes,  as  the  quotation  from  the  letter 
testifies,  the  air  is  drawn  from  alleys  where  garbage 
or  other  rubbish  is  kept.  When  cloth  for  sifting 
air  is  placed  over  in-takes  it  quickly  becomes  heavy 
with  a  blackish  deposit.  When  air  is  washt  by 
spraying  or  by  showers  of  water  in  certain  ven- 
tilating systems  the  washings  make  a  muddy 
stream  whose  "mud"  might  have  gone  in  chil- 
dren's lungs  instead,  as  much  goes.  Builders  of 
schoolhouses  say  such  systems  should  always  be 
used  in  soft  coal  cities,  but  are  not  so  necessary 
in  anthracite  cities;  nevertheless  several  pails 
of  dirt — five  I  am  told — were  washt  out  of  the 
air  in  one  week  in  a  Brooklyn  school  standing  in  a 
good  neighborhood. 

This  leads  us  back  again  to  the  cleanliness  of 
streets  and  byways  around  the  school.  If  any 
mother  does  not  know  that  the  conditions  are  as 
they  should  be  around  her  own  child's  school, 
perhaps  those  five  pails  of  dirt  may  interest  her 
to  find  out.  It  is  tempting  Providence  to  com- 
fortably assume  in  the  face  of  such  facts  that 
officials  care  so  much  more  than  mothers  about 
mothers'  own  children. 

Or  it  may  be  that  the  school  yard  itself  is  at 


102  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

fault.  Does  the  outlet  for  bad  air  empty  in  the 
playground  as  this  letter  reports,  or  in  some  other 
place  where  children  get  it  directly?  Is  it  a  muddy 
yard,  or  in  some  other  way  not  fit  for  children's 
use,  and  giving  them  a  low  ideal  of  what  the 
surroundings  of  the  place  they  live  in  should  be? 
If  so,  mothers'  clubs  can  "  attain  merit "  by  putting 
it  in  good  condition,  as  many  clubs  have  already 
done,  and  by  encouraging  children  to  do  as  much 
of  the  work  themselves  as  possible,  and  to  keep 
it  as  it  should  be.  Some  cities,  Cleveland  for 
example,  have  beautiful  settings  of  greenery  for 
all  their  schoolhouses  in  which  children  take  great 
pride  and  for  whose  good  condition  they  feel 
responsible.  Most  school  yards  are  ugly.  It  is 
not  always  money  so  much  as  it  is  brains  that 
is  needed.  Working  on  such  an  improvement 
helps  arouse  interest  in  the  need  of  larger,  much 
larger  plots  of  land  around  schools. 

Another  not  uncommon  cause  of  schoolhouse 
dirtiness  is  its  standing  directly  in  the  path  of  the 
prevailing  winds  bringing  smoke  from  a  factory 
or  other  chimney.  This  increases  the  labor  and 
expense  of  keeping  rooms  and  windows  clean;  or, 
which  is  more  usual,  they  are  not  kept  clean,  and 
health  suffers — a  greater  expense  in  the  end. 
Some  such  chimneys  also  send  out  injurious  gases 
and  disagreeable  odors.  There  are  methods  of 
preventing  all  these  defilements  of  the  air  we  live 
in — or  die  in.  In  a  few  places  there  are  laws 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES          103 

requiring  these  methods  to  be  used,  but  they  are 
rarely  well  enforced.  Just  as  city  fathers  allow 
saloons,  houses  of  ill-fame  and  the  evils  always 
cropping  out  in  their  neighborhoods  to  educate 
many  children  more  hours  in  the  year  than  do  our 
schools,  so  they  allow  dirty  streets  and  business 
methods  to  injure  their  physical  health  in  the  ways 
we  are  considering. 

There  are  American  cities  actually  boasting  of 
the  clouds  of  smoke  overhanging  them  as  a  sign 
of  prosperity!  It  is,  instead,  testimony  to  being 
behind  the  times.  The  blacker  the  smoke,  the 
greater  economic  waste,  and  waste  of  public 
health  as  well.  It  is  entirely  possible  to  have 
city  air  free  from  smoke.  We  must  have  suitable 
legislation,  health  boards  with  power  to  enforce 
these  laws,  and  strong  public  opinion  which 
mothers  should  help  in  creating  to  keep  health 
boards  up  to  their  duties.  Some  useful  facts  are 
to  be  found  in  "The  Cure  for  the  Smoke  Evil," 
by  Herbert  M.  Wilson,  Engineer  in  Charge,  U.S. 
Bureau  of  Mines,  publisht  in  The  American  City, 
June,  1911.  The  number  also  contains  an  article 
on  baths. 

Clean  streets  and  other  surroundings  are  really 
problems  in  city  housekeeping,  and  seriously 
affect  housekeeping  in  homes  and  schools.  Indif- 
ference, ignorance  or  incapacity  in  city  cleaning 
waste  an  incalculable  amount  of  labor,  time, 
health,  happiness  of  those  who  try  to  keep  homes 
fit  for  growing  citizens. 


104  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

May 

Schools  and  social  centers 

Besides  dirty,  bad  smelling  streets,  byways  or 
yards,  or  lawless  factory  owners  and  incompetent 
officials  who  allow  these  things,  there  is  also 
another  item  from  outside  that  calls  for  foresight 
to  avoid  its  complicating  the  difficulties  of  clean 
schoolhouses. 

It  is  becoming  known  under  the  propaganda 
for  "The  school  as  a  social  center"  or  "neighbor- 
hood center,"  or  "Wider  use  of  the  school  plant." 
It  has  so  many  good  reasons  for  its  development 
that  unless  thinking  people  keep  certain  essential 
rights  of  school  children  in  mind,  it  will  do  much 
harm  that  can  be  avoided  by  reasonable  foresight 
in  the  beginning. 

We  have  approximately  one  billion  dollars 
invested  in  public  school  property,  costing  us 
annually  over  $341,000,000  to  operate.  We  use 
this  expensive  department  of  the  government  not 
more  than  six  hours  daily  for  155  days,  about  930 
hours  annually,  less  than  a  third  of  the  time  any 
ordinary  shop  is  open. 

Many  of  our  large  business  undertakings, 
especially  those  of  public  utility  such  as  trans- 
oceanic or  trans-continental  carriers,  employing 
eight-hour  (or  other)  shifts  of  men,  operate 
steadily  twenty-four  hours,  365  days  in  the  year. 
Others  lie  idle  Sundays  only,  or  Sundays  and 
nights.  Others  go  on  for  eight,  nine,  ten  hours, 


CLEAN  SGHOOLHOUSES          105 

six  and  a  half  days,  for  fifty  two  weeks  in  the  year. 
The  contrast  between  the  management  of  our 
immense  public  investment  in  schools  and  that  of 
private  investments  of  even  small  amounts,  or 
that  of  some  other  public  departments  is  great. 

Idle  buildings  and  idle  rooms  in  buildings  have 
contributed  to  the  apparent  reluctance  in  some  in- 
stances with  which  appropriations  for  more  build- 
ings or  for  running  expenses  have  been  granted. 
Thriftiness  in  these  respects  has  seemed  lacking. 
It  is  wasteful  not  only  of  money,  but  it  is  wasteful 
of  opportunity  to  meet  urgent  public  needs. 
Except  church  property,  which  is  likewise  idle 
the  greater  part  of  the  time  in  spite  of  the  increas- 
ing demand  for  better  moral  education,  there  is 
almost  no  investment  in  buildings  lying  unused 
so  large  a  proportion  of  the  year.  It  is  worth 
more  than  passing  notice  that  in  these  two  costly 
institutions  so  many  people  seem  to  like  getting 
so  little  for  their  money.  The  more  holidays  and 
the  shorter  hours,  the  better. 

These  economic  facts,  together  with  the  need 
of  meeting  places  for  the  population  not  in  day 
school,  have  led  to  the  advocacy  of  using  school 
buildings  for  other  than  day  pupils.  Evening 
schools  and  summer  schools  are  becoming  a  part 
of  public  school  work  and  belong  regularly  in  the 
problem  of  school  sanitation. 

There  are,  however,  certain  irregular  meetings 
that  have  not  so  belonged — special  political, 


106  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

scientific,  educational,  philanthropic  and  social 
meetings.  Each  succeeding  year  a  larger  number 
of  these  are  held  in  school  buildings. 

If  such  meetings  do  not  detract  from  the  regular 
educational  uses  of  the  buildings,  they  should  be 
encouraged.  But  it  is  important  to  answer  now, 
in  the  beginning  of  this  innovation,  the  question, 
"Is  the  use  of  school  buildings  for  other  than  day 
and  evening  schools  in  any  way  detrimental  to 
these  schools?"  If  it  is  so,  in  any  way,  the  harm 
must  be  stopt.  We  have  already  to  make  right 
enough  mistakes  affecting  children,  of  long  stand- 
ing in  the  schools  and  in  the  community,  without 
injuring  them  further  by  additional  ones.  Schools 
have  been  their  special  sanctum,  the  one  place 
where  professedly  their  rights  are  dominant. 

From  my  own  limited  experience  the  answer 
to  the  above  question  is  undoubtedly  yes.  Such 
use  of  school  buildings  in  some  instances  has  been 
injurious  in  the  matter  of  cleanliness  (healthful- 
ness),  altho  it  is  not  inevitable  that  it  should  be 
so.  In  widely  separated  localities  I  have  found 
the  following  examples  of  gross  violation  of  chil- 
dren's right  to  have  clean  rooms : 

A  political  meeting  Saturday,  with  the  building 
dirty  and  smelling  of  tobacco  smoke  Monday. 

A  monthly  meeting  during  several  years,  with 
rooms  regularly  saturated  with  tobacco  smoke 
during  the  next  day. 

A    regular    monthly    banquet    (after    literary 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES  107 

exercises),  with  fragments,  crumbs  and  the  odor 
of  food  in  evidence  at  school  the  next  day. 

Occasional  lectures  or  entertainments,  with  the 
noise,  dust  and  interruptions  of  preparation  during 
school  hours.  Children's  own  entertainments 
create  enough  of  this. 

Floors  not  swept  after  public  meetings  and  in 
a  condition  such  as  no  good  housewife  has  at  home. 

Dried  expectorated  tobacco  juice. 

Dried  sputum. 

These  items  lead  one  to  wonder  further  how 
clean  were  the  hands  that  left  their  memories 
on  the  children's  furnishings. 

It  should  be  said  that  there  was  no  auditorium 
in  any  of  these  schools.  The  public  used  the 
classrooms.  It  would  be  absurd  to  claim  that 
these  instances  are  all  that  have  occurred,  and 
I  doubt  their  rarity.  Teachers  understand  that 
in  these  matters,  as  in  the  regular  conduct  of 
sanitary  affairs,  consistent  and  effective  complain- 
ing on  their  part  makes  them  disliked  and  so 
endangers  their  positions.  Therefore  they  suffer 
the  consequences  with  the  children. 

These  examples  of  conditions  already  resulting 
from  public  use  of  school  buildings  are  a  fair 
warning  that  we  should  provide  a  very  much  more 
intelligent  and  efficient  care  of  rooms  than  we  have 
hitherto  provided,  and  should  do  it  before  the 
children  are  subjected  to  the  conditions,  instead  of 


108  MOTHERS'  CLUBS  AND 

after.  They  warn  us  that  we  may  expect,  if 
we  do  not  do  this,  that  the  greater  use  of  the  school 
plant  is  to  thwart  our  efforts  in  prevention  of 
tuberculosis,  nervous  disorders  and  other  forms 
of  ill  health  that  have  been  invited  by  public 
schools  in  the  past. 

It  is  apparent  that  in  this  wider  use  of  the  school 
plant  by  the  public  we  are  liable  to  infringe  on 
children's  rights  in  the  schools  as  we  have  in  so 
many  other  places.  We  have  built  cities  where 
they  must  live  without  safe  spaces  for  play — the 
child's  normal  method  of  character  and  health 
building.  We  have  churches  with  the  children 
an  after-thought  in  the  hands  of  unstandardized 
volunteers,  and  very  likely  in  a  dim  and  unattrac- 
tive basement.  Our  theatres,  literature,  press  and 
streets  abound  in  evil  lessons  for  children.  The 
majority  of  homes  provide  food,  hours,  rooms  and 
amusements  for  adult  tastes,  neglecting  the  things 
good  for  children. 

In  view  of  these  tendencies  any  slightest  further 
overstepping  of  the  rights  of  children  in  the  single 
institution  primarily  dedicated  to  them  is  a  matter 
for  jealous  watchfulness.  Mothers'  clubs  should 
be  trustworthy  guardians  to  detect  and  prevent 
it. 

It  is  the  greatest  pity  in  the  world  that  our 
thousands  of  empty,  idle,  untaxt  church  build- 
ings should  not  be  used  for  all  kinds  of  decent  adult 
meetings.  Our  courthouses,  the  assembly  and 


CLEAN  SCHOOLHOUSES          109 

committee  rooms  of  city  hall  and  statehouse  are 
public  property,  as  are  often  the  lecture  rooms  in 
libraries,  museums,  art  galleries  and  the  like. 
There  are  many  places  built  for  public  use  by 
adults  that  are  unused  evenings  and  Sundays. 
Use  them. 


Ill 

SCHOOL  JANITORS  AND  HEALTH 


"Every  sanitary  precaution  necessary  in  private  homes 
should  be  enforced  many  times  more  rigorously  in  school- 
houses." — "American  Schoolhouses,"  Bulletin  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education 

October 

A  billion  dollars  and  all  our  children 

The  motif  in  Prevention  of  School  Fatigue  is  the 
imperative  duty  of  cooperation  between  parents 
and  schools  in  health  details  for  children,  espe- 
cially on  the  side  of  mothers. 

In  the  discussion  of  Clean  Schoolhouses  is 
urged  the  responsibility  of  mothers  for  the  welfare 
of  their  children  wherever  they  may  be  in  the  com- 
munity, with  special  reference  to  the  housewifery 
in  our  schools.  Mothers  cannot  safely  shuffle  off 
this  God-given  responsibility  on  teachers  and 
political  officials,  nor  can  fathers,  as  is  shown  by 
our  mortality  and  morbidity  rates  among  children. 

Women,  by  general  consent  the  "home  makers " 
and  "housekeepers,"  are  guilty  when  shutting 
their  eyes  to  and  withholding  their  labors  from 
111 


112  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

any  dirty,  dusty,  bad  smelling,  overheated  school- 
room provided  for  our  potential  citizens  and 
parents  during  the  best  waking  hours  of  their 
most  plastic  years. 

Ignorance  of  the  sanitary  conditions  surround- 
ing children  is  no  excuse.  Nature's  laws  of  life 
and  death  do  not  recognize  it  as  one,  but  continue 
on  their  way,  blighting  here,  cutting  off  there,  un- 
til parents  shall  learn  the  lessons  whose  tuition 
fees  are  paid  in  helpless  lives,  heartaches  of  guard- 
ians not  equal  to  the  trust,  and  society's  loss  of 
the  service  that  might  have  been  received  in 
return  for  intelligent — cleaning  of  schoolhouses; 
such  sweeping,  dusting,  scrubbing,  heating,  ven- 
tilating, disinfecting,  deodorizing,  as  all  good 
mothers  know  homes  must  have  for  health's  sake. 

I  first  read  the  sentence  heading  this  article 
when  feeling  particularly  sceptical  about  mothers' 
clubs.  I  had  just  been  (1912)  in  a  city  where  I 
saw  in  its  expensive  ornamental  normal  school 
building  a  Chipt  Rusted  Cup  chained  to  a  water 
faucet,  mixing  salivas  of  all  sorts  of  people  in  their 
drinking  water;  this  being  the  instruction  in 
practice  to  the  supplementary  mothers,  the  teach- 
ers, who  are  supposed  to  be  trained  there  to 
guard  safely  the  lives  committed  to  their  care. 

In  the  principal  square  of  the  city  was  a  drink- 
ing fountain  with  a  Chained  Cup  where  I  saw  men 
and  boys  mixing  poisons  and  diseases.  All  three 
school  buildings  that  I  visited  had  The  Common 


AND  HEALTH  113 

Cup  also,  with  the  usual  other  insanitary  practices 
that  go  with  this  filthy  one. 

And  the  boast  of  this  municipality  is  its  wealth. 

But  the  most  discouraging  part  is  still  to  tell. 
This  city  has  had  for  several  years  two  large  and 
over  twenty  small  mothers'  clubs.  Some  of  them 
know  what  Professor  Davison's  pictures  show  on 
The  Common  Cup,  and  know  that  all  sanitary 
authorities  as  well  as  their  own  good  sense  con- 
sider it  the  nastiest  habit  we  force  on  children 
(and  the  public),  one  of  the  usual  causes  of 
tuberculosis,  syphilis,  and  every  other  disease 
whose  germs  lodge  in  throat  and  mouth. 

The  clubs'  programs  are  engaged  with — well — 
Child  Psychology,  and  neglect  the  elementary 
cleanliness  that  makes  the  good  blood  necessary 
for  the  brain  to  work  rightly.  They  talk  about 
Stories  for  Children,  and  Books  for  Children,  and 
Play  for  Children,  and  give  children  The  Common 
Cup  that  so  often  ends  the  need  for  stories  and 
books  and  play. 

If  they  would  spend  on  The  Common  Cup  the 
energy  and  money  given  to  getting  out  one  year's 
program,  they  would  justify  their  organizing,  as 
the  program  alone — words  without  works — does 
not.  To  screw  on  a  little  bubble  faucet  in  each 
school,  not  forgetting  the  pretentious  normal, 
would  save  years  of  life — "  monumentum  aere 
perennius."  One  member  replied  to  my  letter 

of  grief:  "Mrs. is  the  wife  of  a  member  of 

8 


114  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

the  board  of  education,  and  is  our  chairman.  She 
would  be  much  offended.  We  have  talked  these 
things  over  among  ourselves,  and  I  think  some- 
thing should  be  done,  and  perhaps  might  be  if  we 
tried."  I  wonder  whether  all  the  sins  shifted  on 
"politics"  really  belong. 

I  wonder,  too,  when  educators  don't,  and 
"politicians"  (fathers  under  another  name)  don't, 
and  mothers  don't — I  wonder  whether  trained 
janitors  would.  Trained  nurses  bring  about 
many  good  things  that  doctors  and  politicians  and 
parents  did  not  accomplish  before  we  had  training 
schools.  So  do  other  trained  workers  in  their 
own  fields. 

We  have  more  than  a  billion  dollars  invested  in 
school  property,  and  we  are  just  now  spending 
about  $70,000,000  annually  in  erecting  new  school- 
houses.  The  care  of  all  this  we  put  in  the  hands 
of  men  to  whom  we  pay  approximately  $30,- 
000,000  annually,  not  one  of  whom  (if,  by 
chance  there  is  one,  it  is  the  exception  proving 
the  rule)  is  trained  in  sanitary  care  of  school 
premises  before  his  first  appointment.  What 
they  have  is  pickt  up  information,  the  kind  of 
knowledge  nurses  had  before  training  schools 
were  establisht.  What  they  do  is  not  what  good 
housekeepers  allow  in  their  housewifery,  and  is 
measured  by  our  vital  statistics  and  educational 
statistics.  The  officials  superintending  them, 
also,  are  not  trained  for  their  duties. 


AND  HEALTH  115 

But  this  is  the  least  of  the  cost.  We,  knowing 
that  schoolrooms  do  not  come  up  to  the  standards 
of  the  best  kept  homes  (and  some  of  our  best  kept 
homes  in  respect  to  health  are  among  poor  people), 
knowing  that  dust,  light,  heat  and  air  and  disease 
germs  are  under  caretakers  with  no  special  train- 
ing, few  standards  and  little  supervision,  just 
as  it  was  with  our  nurses  sixty  years  ago — we 
place  in  these  school  homes  the  health  of  practi- 
cally every  citizen  at  his  most  critical  age — that 
of  rapid  physical  growth,  the  age  of  laying  founda- 
tions of  intelligence  and  morality. 

We  are  frequently  humiliated  by  learning  how 
poorly  our  vital  statistics  compare  with  those  of 
some  European  countries  as  well  as  our  statistics 
of  crime,  illiteracy,  degeneracy,  alcoholism,  and 
recent  poverty.  Among  the  lessons  we  find  in 
those  countries  bearing  on  the  concerns  of  physi- 
cal life  is  one  that  several  educators  and  other 
travellers  have  commented  on,  that  schoolhouses 
in  Germany  and  elsewhere  are  much  cleaner  and 
more  sanitary  than  they  commonly  are  with 
us. 

We  train  and  test  for  efficiency,  in  other  words 
we  standardize  to  some  extent  many  other  kinds 
of  civil  service  in  which  not  so  much  money  and 
not  nearly  so  much  of  national  well-being  is 
involved,  and  we  do  it  in  many  kinds  of  private 
service.  We  pay  janitors  in  many  cities  at 
higher  rates  than  we  pay  elementary  teachers  who 


116  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

spend  so  much  time,  money  and  effort  on  prepara- 
tion and  are  regularly  tested. 

Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the  death 
rate  from  tuberculosis  among  teachers  being 
higher  than  the  average  of  all  other  occupations. 
In  the  administration  of  teachers'  retirement 
funds  it  is  recently  reported  that  only  one-tenth 
retire  because  of  age.  The  other  nine-tenths  give 
out  because  of  physical  and  mental  inefficiency, 
nervous  troubles  and  similar  forms  of  ill  health. 

Among  children  there  is  a  group  of  ailments 
long  recognized  as  "school  diseases"  of  which  we 
have  already  spoken.  They  are  chiefly  anemia, 
nervous  disorders,  heart  troubles  and  defective 
vision.  It  is  now  generally  known  that  tuberculo- 
sis increases  thru  school  years  and  after  until  in 
the  twenties  and  thirties,  the  years  of  marriage 
and  parenthood,  it  is  the  commonest  cause  of 
death.  We  have  also  referred  to  the  fact  that 
it  is  latent  in  very  many  children,  and  liable  to 
become  active  on  any  slight  depreciation  of  the 
general  health. 

That  conditions  of  schoolrooms  promote  these 
national  and  local  mortality  and  morbidity  rates 
has  one  proof  in  open  air  schools.  Here,  doing 
the  same  work  under  the  same  teachers,  every 
delicate,  anemic,  tuberculous,  nervous,  backward 
(selected)  child,  with  no  exception,  has  improved 
in  health,  also  in  school  work  and  often  in  grade, 
at  a  more  rapid  rate  than  children  in  regular 


AND  HEALTH  117 

classrooms.  These  "occupational  diseases"  of 
schools  are  fostered  by  too  high  temperatures, 
too  dry,  stagnant,  dusty  indoor  air. 


November 

The  great  test 

One  test  of  the  quality  of  janitor's  work  is  the 
health  of  teachers  and  children.  There  is  another 
very  sensitive  measurement  of  their  work  and 
of  the  sanitary  conditions  of  schools. 

Schools  do  not  exist  simply  to  turn  out  children 
from  their  grades,  or  fit  them  for  college,  or  train 
them  to  be  good  money  makers  after  leaving 
school.  The  true  object — even  if  not  yet  gene- 
rally realized — is  to  make  good  mothers  and 
fathers  of  better  children. 

The  largest  part  of  our  strenuous  social  efforts 
to  lessen  the  world's  misery  is  directed  against 
the  unfitness  of  parents.  Some  of  this  unfitness 
is  poor  health.  Some  is  ignorance  of  healthful 
ways  of  living,  or  it  is  wilf ul  disobedience  to  laws 
of  health  partly  due  to  the  tyranny  of  lifelong  bad 
habits. 

The  most  sensitive  measurement  of  the  sanitary 
conditions  of  schoolrooms  is  the  rate  at  which 
babies  under  one  year  of  age  die — what  we  call  our 


118  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

infant  mortality  rate.  This  country  stands  far 
ahead  of  other  civilized  countries  in  national 
wealth.  It  stands,  also,  very  high  in  crimes 
against  life.  There  is  no  country  with  such 
terrible  records  of  industrial  accidents  and  railway 
accidents;  no  country  with  such  a  rate  of  suicide 
and  murder.  Nearly  half  of  the  suicides  that  have 
occurred  in  the  last  fifty  years  have  been  in  the 
last  ten.  In  some  years  we  are  having  about 
11,000  murders,  the  average  is  over  6,000  every 
year,  and  we  convict  less  than  two  murderers  in 
one  hundred.  Germany  convicts  ninety-five 
in  every  hundred,  and  has  few  such  crimes  in 
comparison  with  us. 

The  lives  lost  in  any  celebrated  battle  of  history 
were  few  compared  with  those  destroyed  annually 
by  violence  and  by  preventable  diseases.  This 
year  will  be  the  same.  We  anticipate  it  quietly. 
But  if  a  battle  at  Lawrence,  for  example,  in  con- 
nection with  the  strike  had  killed — two — or  ten, 
it,  too,  would  go  down  in  history.  Some  day  we 
shall  turn  to  the  mortality  records  of  our  industrial 
and  civic  struggles  with  horror,  for  they  eclipse 
those  of  war. 

Of  all  our  crimes  against  life  the  worst  is  our 
infant  mortality  rate.  By  our  most  recent  and 
most  favorable  estimate  we  are  about  one-third 
down  the  list  of  civilized  countries  that  we  lead 
by  such  a  generous  margin  in  wealth.  Another 
estimates  us  twenty-second  among  the  thirty-one, 


AND  HEALTH  119 

and  other  experts  in  vital  statistics  give  us  other 
discreditable  ranks.  Our  great  wealth  has  not 
saved  the  lives  of  babies  and  children. 

Every  patriotic  man  and  woman  and  all  who 
reverence  the  life  in  a  baby  that  has  survived 
thru  generations  vanishing  into  ages  beyond  our 
knowledge — a  trust  from  the  infinite — knows 
that  we  should  be  first  in  the  list,  and  that  there 
should  at  least  be  no  guessing  about  our  rank. 
We  are  the  only  civilized  country  that  does  not 
keep  official  records  of  the  birth  of  its  citizens. 

A  few  states  and  cities  whose  birth  registration 
is  accepted  tentatively  by  the  Bureau  of  the 
Census  are  required  to  come  within  only  10  per 
cent  of  the  truth,  while  other  countries  are 
required  to  be  within  5  per  cent. 

One  interesting — very  interesting  fact  in  con- 
nection with  infant  mortality  rates  as  related 
to  schoolhouse  keeping,  and  to  women's  responsi- 
bility for  children  wherever  they  may  be  in  the 
community  and  responsibility  for  those  social 
evils  that  injure  babies,  is  this :  The  eleven  coun- 
tries where  children  are  best  cared  for  are  the 
eleven  where  women  have  equal  power  with  men 
in  controlling  governmental  and  social  practices, 
thus  being  able  to  discharge  their  God-given 
responsibility.  According  to  the  international 
tables  of  vital  statistics  publisht  by  the  Registrar- 
General  of  births,  deaths  and  marriages  in  Eng- 
land and  Wales  the  eleven  countries  with  lowest 


120  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

death  rates  of  infants  and  children  under  five 
years  of  age  are  New  Zealand,  Norway,  South 
Australia,  Tasmania,  Queensland,  Sweden,  Vic- 
toria, New  South  Wales,  Denmark,  Western 
Australia  and  Finland. 

This,  interpreted,  means  that  where  women  are 
clear  thinking  enough  to  do  their  part,  and  men 
fair  minded  enough  to  share  the  world's  work  on 
equally  advantageous  terms,  child  life  is  safer 
and  humanity  better.  In  all  these  eleven  coun- 
tries some  of  the  recognized  causes  of  infant 
mortality  are  less.  In  several  the  use  of  alcoholic 
drinks  is  under  very  much  better  control  than 
with  us.  Divorce  statistics,  the  social  evil  and 
poverty  are  less  in  some;  industrial  conditions 
and  education  better  regulated.  In  some  health 
officers  and  other  sanitary  workers  are  much  more 
often  trained  for  their  positions. 

We  have  nine  states  now  (1912)  with  3,000,000 
women  having  full  citizenship's  responsibility 
for  children:  Wyoming,  Colorado,  Utah,  Idaho, 
Washington,  California,  Kansas,  Arizona  and 
Oregon.  But  their  birth  registration  is  not  yet 
near  enough  to  accuracy  to  be  accepted  even  ten- 
tatively by  the  Bureau  of  the  Census. 

More  than  twice  as  many  babies  born  alive 
die  annually  as  people  at  all  ages  from  tuberculo- 
sis. In  the  last  ten  years  approximately  two 
million  babies  born  alive  have  died  under  one  year 
of  age.  Four  million  children  under  five  years 


AND  HEALTH  121 

of  age  have  died  in  these  ten  years.  Of  the  two 
million  babies,  one-third  of  the  deaths  occurred 
in  the  first  month  after  birth.  As  many  more 
probably  occurred  at  and  just  before  birth;  while 
as  many  deaths  probably  occurred  during  the 
four  months  before  birth  as  in  the  first  nine  months 
of  the  first  year. 

These  deaths  before  birth  and  within  a  month 
after  are  distinctly  due  to  fathers  and  mothers  who 
have  not  given  their  children  enough  vitality  to 
survive.  One  exception  to  this  statement  would 
be  those  deaths  due  to  murder  of  the  child  before 
it  is  born,  whose  number  is  not  known,  but  is 
large.  Another  exception  is  deaths  due  to  im- 
proper care  of  the  new  born. 

After  the  first  month  deaths  are  more  likely  to 
be  due  to  bad  care  and  to  wrong  environment, 
or  to  accidents,  or  to  crime.  If  the  sanitary  con- 
ditions are  so  poor  as  to  cause  death,  in  so  far 
as  health  ideas  and  habits  have  been  wrongly 
formed  at  school,  schools  are  responsible — such 
habits  as  becoming  accustomed  to  dusty,  dirty, 
badly  ventilated,  overheated  rooms,  and  so  having 
them  at  home.  It  is  a  cause  of  death  for  a  baby 
to  live  in  a  too  hot  room,  with  perhaps  steam  and 
dust,  and  too  much  clothing  on. 

And  in  so  far  as  schools  have  promoted  in  future 
parents  the  "school  diseases,"  anemia,  nervous 
disorders,  catarrhal  and  tuberculous  conditions, 
by  overheated,  dusty,  arid  air  (which  will  be  bad 


122  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

in  other  ways  if  bad  in  these),  all  which  details 
are  in  the  care  of  janitors,  our  infant  mortality 
rate  becomes  an  index  of  our  school  sanitation. 
It  is,  indeed,  an  index  of  civilization  itself.  If 
babies  were  well  born  and  well  cared  for  their 
death  rate  would  be  almost  negligible.  This 
means  that  the  infant  mortality  rate  measures  the 
intelligence,  right  living  and  health  of  fathers  and 
mothers;  the  standards  of  sanitation  and  morals 
of  communities  and  governments;  the  efficiency 
of  physicians,  health  boards,  educators — and 
janitors.  Our  measurement  we  have  seen  is 
poor. 


The  Boston  A.C.A. 

The  first  people  in  this  country  to  appreciate 
the  importance  of  cleanliness  of  schoolhouses 
enough  to  really  study  it,  spending  money,  labor, 
time  and  intelligent,  even  expert  effort  on  the 
details,  were,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  educated 
"home  makers" — the  Boston  Branch  of  the  Asso- 
ciation of  Collegiate  Alumnae.  In  this,  as  in  so 
many  other  vital  concerns  of  homes  and  schools, 
Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards  was  an  inspiring  guide, 
serving  as  a  sanitary  expert  from  the  Massachu- 
setts Institute  of  Technology. 

The  work  was  organized  very  thoughtfully  and 
efficiently.  The  cooperation  was  secured  of  the 
mayor,  the  president  of  the  school  board,  superin- 


AND  HEALTH  123 

tendent  of  schools,  supervisors  and  teachers,  chief 
inspector  of  public  buildings  in  the  state,  chairman 
of  the  board  of  health,  custodian  of  buildings 
and,  besides  Mrs.  Richards,  two  other  experts 
from  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology. 
S.  Homer  Woodbridge,  professor  of  heating  and 
ventilation,  directed  the  technical  investigations 
of  heating  and  ventilating  apparatus,  and  of 
plumbing,  made  by  paid  inspectors.  It  was 
volunteer  work  for  the  good  of  the  children — and 
the  nation. 

They  systematicly  investigated  and  took  notes 
on  several  hundred  details.  This  account  will 
review  only  some  of  those  directly  concerned 
with  janitors'  work  as  it  affects  health.  They  did 
not  take  any  one's  word  for  any  housewifery  that 
they  could  learn  by  their  own  personal  observa- 
tion. This  is  a  very  right  policy,  for  rules  are  one 
thing,  the  methods  of  carrying  them  out  in  school 
housekeeping,  as  in  one's  own  housekeeping,  are 
quite  another.  Official  replies  to  questionnaires 
are — official. 

Another  strong  point  is  that  they  did  not  drop 
the  work  after  making  their  first  report.  In  two 
years,  after  the  city  had  expended  the  special 
appropriations  amounting  to  about  $400,000,  as 
well  as  their  regular  annual  appropriations  for 
repairs,  they  took  it  up  again  with  equal  thoroness 
and  reported  on  oversights — true  housekeepers' 
system  that  all  municipal  sanitation  needs.  They 


124  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

found  a  considerable  portion  of  the  appropriations 
had  been  misspent  according  to  amateurs*  ideas, 
instead  of  according  to  the  advice  of  sanitary 
experts — the  real  economy  and  effectiveness. 

The  later  reviews  of  the  ground  showed  some 
improvements  following  each  investigation.  But 
Boston  has  not  yet  "arrived"  in  the  matter  of 
clean  schoolhouses.  There  is  still  more  for  the 
"natural  housekeepers  "  who  have  been  scientificly 
trained  in  housewifery  to  do  there  and  in  every 
other  city,  or  our  tuberculosis  and  infant  mortality 
rates  would  not  be  so  high.  Another  good 
result  was  that  their  work  being  so  sensibly  done 
inspired  other  branches  of  the  Collegiate  Alumnae 
to  study  the  schools  in  their  cities  in  similar 
fashions,  and  their  reports  produced  local  effects 
of  more  or  less  value. 


December 

And  Janitors9  Rules 

One  of  the  interesting  discoveries  made  quite 
generally  wherever  the  college  women  undertook 
this  study  was  that  the  requirements  for  clean- 
liness in  schoolhouses,  which  were  sometimes,  as 
in  Boston,  inadequate,  were  not  lived  up  to. 

In  Boston  their  report  stated  that  while  it  was 


AND  HEALTH  125 

provided  that  stairs  and  passageways  be  swept 
daily,  and  the  rooms  twice  a  week  (imagine  a  home 
with  a  few  score  or  hundred  children  swept  that 
often),  in  over  half  the  schools  the  halls  were  swept 
only  twice  a  week  instead  of  daily,  in  two  it  was 
done  but  once  a  week,  and  in  one  only  once  a 
month. 

Entries,  stairs,  rails  and  furnishings  were  to  be 
dusted  every  morning;  but  it  was  found  that 
classrooms  were  dusted  less  often  than  once  a 
week  by  eight  janitors,  only  twice  a  week  by 
eighty,  daily  by  teachers  or  pupils  or  janitors  in 
fifty-two  schools,  and  daily  by  janitors  according 
to  the  rules  in  only  forty-three  of  the  193  schools 
studied. 

There  was  a  rule  that  desks,  seats  and  wood- 
work be  cleaned  whenever  necessary.  Twenty- 
one  janitors  thought  it  was  never  necessary  and 
had  never  done  it;  twenty-four  had  done  it  once; 
fifteen  had  done  it  rarely;  twenty-one  did  it 
occasionally;  twelve,  twice  a  year;  ten,  oftener, 
while  in  sixty  schools  all  such  cleaning  was  done 
in  the  long  vacations. 

Janitors'  standards  of  housekeeping  set  more 
home  standards  and  habits  of  cleanliness  and 
healthful  living  thruout  the  country  than  any 
other  one  agency.  It  is  chiefly  violation  of  laws 
of  cleanliness  and  health  in  schools,  at  home  and 
in  the  community  that  kills  children  of  any  age. 
These  housekeepers  whose  studies  we  are  dis- 


126  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

cussing,  and  who  found  that  even  poor  rules 
(such  as  no  good  housekeeper  would  have)  were 
not  lived  up  to,  had  and  have  no  power  to  use  their 
housekeeping  ability  on  this  important  problem 
for  the  good  of  the  state  that  educated  them. 
This  is  foolish  economics. 

There  were  no  rules  (1895)  requiring  floors  to 
be  washt.  From  9  to  50  years  the  floors  had  not 
been  washt  in  77  buildings!  They  were  washt 
seldom  in  12  buildings;  once  a  year  in  15;  twice 
a  year  in  18;  three  times  a  year  in  8;  oftener 
than  three  times  a  year  in  5.  They  were  all 
floors  so  finisht  as  to  permit  washing — and  invite 
it.  Washing,  as  we  have  seen  in  Clean  School- 
houses,  is  not  the  best  treatment  of  floors  with 
certain  finishes  that  need  other  care.  Whatever 
the  finish,  the  text  heading  the  beginning  of  this 
subject  stands. 

Ten  years  later  there  were  still  no  rules  requiring 
floors  washt,  and  the  great  majority  of  the  floors 
were  as  one  would  expect.  But  in  1905  there  was 
some  improvement  in  requirements  for  sweeping, 
altho  the  quality  of  the  sweeping  was  not  held  up 
to  good  housekeeping  standards,  and  the  new 
rules  were  not  always  obeyed.  Schoolrooms  not 
used  for  kindergartens,  manual  training,  evening 
classes  and  lectures  were  still  to  be  swept  only 
twice  a  week;  the  others,  daily;  and  all  were  to 
have  fortnightly  sweeping  with  sawdust  wet  with 
a  solution  of  formaldehyde.  The  door  knobs  and 


AND  HEALTH  127 

hand  rails  were  to  be  washt  twice  a  month  with  a 
solution  of  formaldehyde,  and  the  seats  and  desks 
of  all  having  a  contagious  disease  were  to  be 
washt  with  a  similar  solution;  all  wood-work  was 
required  to  be  washt  once  or  twice  a  year. 

These  rules  are  the  record  of  ten  years'  prog- 
ress on  these  points  in  school  administration. 
They  show  a  limited  amount  of  interest  and  capa- 
city. Their  requirements  from  the  viewpoint 
of  efficient  housekeepers  are  not  sufficient  either 
in  quality  or  quantity. 

The  parents  who  in  those  ten  years  lost  probably 
ten  thousand  children  under  ten  years  of  age  who 
died  unnecessarily,  and  the  parents  whose  living 
children  were  hindered  by  altho  surviving  the 
causes  that  helpt  destroy  the  ten  thousand 
should  regard  anything  less  than  excellence  in 
school  housekeeping  a  crime  against  childhood, 
motherhood  and  the  state.  The  children  are 
helpless,  and  the  unfranchised  mothers  who  are 
housekeepers  and  caretakers  of  children  by  com- 
mon consent.  The  statistics  of  ill  health  among 
teachers  make  all  this  quite  as  much  a  vital 
matter  to  them,  all  of  whom  are  also  politically 
powerless. 


128  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

January 

Measuring  dirt  on  windows 

Another  study  made  by  these  women  was  of 
schoolhouse  window  cleaning.  The  requirement 
was  that  windows  should  be  washt  twice  a  year. 
The  question  they  wisht  to  answer  was  whether 
under  this  rule  there  were  any  schools  where  dirt 
accumulated  on  the  windows  in  sufficient  quantity 
to  diminish  light  to  the  point  of  injuring  vision. 

With  a  photometer  they  measured  the  amount 
of  light  entering  before  and  after  washing  the 
windows  on  one  side  and  on  both  sides.  They 
arrived  at  interesting  facts  and  practical  conclu- 
sions. 

When  this  committee  used  a  photometer  to 
measure  the  amount  of  light  coming  thru  windows 
in  their  study  of  housecleaning  they  were  helping 
an  important  step  forward  for  children.  They 
were  measuring  with  an  instrument  of  precision, 
instead  of  expressing  opinions  which  so  often 
differ,  with  every  one  "a  right  to  his  own" — a 
dangerous  maxim  applied  to  cleanliness. 

We  measure  heat  by  thermometers,  and  that 
is  the  only  accurate  (when  instruments  are  so) 
test  of  school  housekeeping  thus  far  adopted.  It 
does  not  yet  amount  to  as  much  as  it  should,  for 
several  reasons. 

Very  recently  a  teacher  informed  me  that  for 
four  weeks  an  hourly  record  of  her  thermostat  had 
been  kept  by  the  children.  It  never  read  under 


AND  HEALTH  129 

72°!  It  was  frequently  76°.  It  appalls  one  to 
think  of  the  "red  tape "  that  maintains  a  tempera- 
ture at  or  above  72°  to  the  second  hour  after  the 
first  has  discovered  it.  Here  were  almost  140 
hours — one  eighth  of  the  school  year — of  "laying 
foundations"  in  education  and  in  our  tuberculosis 
rate,  with  the  end  of  the  overheating  not  yet  in 
sight.  Her  city's  "Rules  for  Janitors"  requires 
70°,  which  is  two  higher  than  in  up-to-date  rules. 
Instruments  of  precision  are  waste  of  public 
funds  if  not  lived  up  to,  and  if  not  kept  accurate 
by  occasional  standardizing,  as  we  regulate  school 
clocks. 

For  studying  window  cleaning  the  schools  were 
groupt  in  three  classes.  Those  of  the  best  class 
were  all  situated  on  high  ground  where  no  struc- 
tures (or  trees,  I  assume)  shaded  the  windows. 
They  were  built  according  to  modern  ideas  of 
maximum  window  area  (one-fourth  of  floor  area), 
with  ventilating  systems  supplying  "sufficient" 
pure  air  (30  cubic  feet  per  minute  for  each  person), 
and  with  the  proper  number  of  pupils  in  each 
room  (forty-five). 

The  buildings  of  the  worst  class  were  located 
where  there  was  a  great  deal  of  smoke,  dust  and 
other  impurities  in  the  air.  They  were  surrounded 
by  tall  buildings  and  by  alleys  not  more  than 
twenty  feet  wide.  They  were  old,  with  insufficient 
window  area,  practically  no  ventilating  systems, 
and  gaslight  was  frequently  used  in  the  daytime. 
9 


130  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

Even  today  city  authorities  sometimes  erect  new 
buildings  near  walls,  or  allow  walls  to  be  placed 
so  close  that  gaslight  is  needed  in  the  day  schools. 
Since  fathers  (the  politicians)  will  do  this,  mothers 
owe  it  to  their  children  to  make  matters  better. 

The  buildings  of  the  intermediate  class  were 
surrounded  by  streets  of  medium  width,  and 
buildings  whose  height  averaged  less  than  the 
height  of  the  school  building,  on  one  side  perhaps 
higher,  on  the  other  much  lower.  Their  window 
area  was  somewhat  less  than  it  should  be;  the 
ventilation  "  fair  "  (a  matter  of  opinion,  I  suppose) ; 
smoke  and  other  impurities  in  the  air  of  the  neigh- 
borhood were  "present  in  average  quantities." 

The  tests  were  made  on  dull,  overcast  days  when 
the  intensity  of  light  was  quite  constant.  The 
poor  light  of  such  days  must  be  provided  against 
in  schoolhouse  construction.  They  measured  the 
light  in  rooms  with  different  exposures  in  each 
building,  before  the  windows  were  washt,  after 
washing  them  on  the  inside,  and  after  washing 
them  on  both  sides. 

In  the  best  buildings  they  found  that  the  light 
was  about  4  per  cent  stronger  after  washing 
windows  on  the  inside;  and  after  washing  them 
on  both  sides  it  was  about  2  per  cent  better  than 
that.  It  varied  a  little  of  course  between  different 
rooms. 

In  the  worst  buildings  they  found  that  before 
washing  the  windows  the  light  measured  one- 


AND  HEALTH  131 

twelfth  to  one-nineteenth  as  much  as  that  in  the 
best  buildings.  It  gained  21  per  cent,  or  there- 
abouts, after  washing  on  the  inside,  and  gained 
about  6  per  cent  more  after  washing  on  both 
sides.  One  room  gained  33.3  per  cent  after  the 
windows  were  washt  on  both  sides. 

Try  to  follow  in  imagination  the  logical  steps 
from  the  compulsory  law  taking  children  away 
from  their  parents  into  rooms  with  one-fifth  to 
one-third  of  the  light  cut  off  by  dirt  on  windows 
which  at  their  best  give  only  one-tenth  to  one- 
seventeenth  the  amount  of  light  thought  by 
experts  to  be  desirable  for  the  best  buildings; 
follow  on  in  thought  to  the  listlessness,  headaches, 
loss  of  grades — "backwardness" — that  we  dis- 
cust  in  Prevention  of  School  Fatigue;  and  then  on 
to  perhaps  the  career  of  "  Weary  Willies  "  or  worse, 
or  to  useful  citizens  forever  hampered  morally  and 
mentally  by  imperfect  vision,  unless  they  happen 
to  discover  that  they  need  glasses.  No  one 
wants  to  spend  money  on  glasses  or  to  be  bothered 
with  them  even  when  old  age  is  a  legitimate 
reason.  There  is  also  the  fact  that  good  light 
is  essential  for  general  health,  including  health  of 
the  nervous  system. 

The  intensity  of  light  before  washing  windows 
in  the  intermediate  class  of  buildings  measured 
about  one-half  that  in  the  best  group,  and  gained 
more  than  twice  as  much  as  they  gained  after 
washing  on  the  inside,  and  nearly  twice  as  much 


132  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

after  washing  on  both  sides.  That  is,  the  windows 
of  the  intermediate  and  worst  classes  were  much 
dirtier  both  outside  and  inside,  needing  washing 
oftener. 

Their  measurements  showed  also  that  in  the 
same  building  some  rooms  must  have  their 
windows  washt  oftener  than  others  to  maintain 
sufficient  illumination  for  reading  without  eye- 
strain.  It  is  with  windows  as  with  management 
of  children,  "wholesale"  rules  treating  all  of  a 
group  alike,  do  not  produce  the  results  we  are 
after. 

In  the  best  class  dirt  does  not  accumulate 
on  windows  enough  to  make  the  reduction  of 
light  of  any  importance.  Yet,  because  they  are 
"prominent"  buildings,  they  almost  always  have 
more  and  better  janitor  service. 

It  was  found  that  the  inside  cleaning  makes 
a  much  greater  improvement  than  the  outside 
cleaning,  particularly  in  buildings  with  poor 
ventilation.  The  moisture  and  organic  material 
given  off  from  children,  with  the  dust  of  the 
rooms  and  impurities  of  city  air,  make  a  deposit 
on  walls  and  windows.  This  helps  to  create 
smells  as  well  as  to  dimmish  light.  A  good 
ventilating  system  would  have  sufficient  ah-  cur- 
rents to  sweep  some  of  this  out  of  doors,  if  windows 
and  flues  were  used  effectively. 

They  could  not  remove  all,  for  even  out  of  doors 
in  smoky  districts,  as  the  coke  burning  regions 


AND  HEALTH  133 

of  Pennsylvania,  or  as  in  large  manufacturing 
cities,  vegetation  is  covered  with  a  deposit  that 
frequently  rain  does  not  wash  off.  This,  with  the 
sulphuric  acid  in  smoky  air,  prevents  or  greatly 
hinders  school  gardens,  home  gardens,  and  the 
beauties  of  field  and  forest.  In  London  they  are 
studying  how  to  save  the  stones  of  which  West- 
minster Cathedral  is  built  from  this  destructive 
action  whose  effects  are  already  serious.  Just 
where  people  and  children  come  in  is  another 
story. 

In  schoolrooms  where  the  deposit  can  be  washt 
from  windows  and  scraped  from  walls,  the  condi- 
tions blight  children  and  teachers — eventually  the 
nation  that  compels  or  permits  them.  Undoubt- 
edly such  schoolroom  air  helps  cause  the  dis- 
colored noduled  lungs  found  at  autopsies  which 
are  spoken  of  in  another  connection.  Since  in 
the  open  air  this  unwholesomeness  exists,  evidently 
to  establish  good  school  ventilation  is  not  the 
whole  problem.  Another  step  is  to  enact  and 
enforce  legislation  compelling  captains  of  indus- 
tries to  cease  contaminating  the  atmosphere  with 
smoke  and  other  impurities  that  damage  public 
health  quite  as  definitely  as  allowing  sewage  to 
escape  into  the  common  water  supply. 

Two  weeks  after  all  the  windows  had  been 
washt  on  both  sides  the  light  was  measured 
again.  It  was  found  that  windows  in  the  inter- 
mediate class  had  grown  three  times  dirtier  than 


134  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

those  in  the  best;  while  windows  in  the  worst 
class  had  grown  six  times  dirtier.  Should  this 
suggest  a  rule  that  janitors  wash  windows  in  the 
dirtiest,  darkest  rooms  six  times  oftener  than  in 
the  brightest  and  best  ventilated,  and  three 
times  oftener  in  the  average  rooms? 


February 

And  "dipping" 

In  Boston  at  that  time  it  cost  over  $11,000  to 
wash  all  the  windows  twice  a  year,  this  investigat- 
ing committee  reported.  It  must  cost  more  now. 
This  expense  for  light  reminds  me  of  Mark  Twain's 
"Truth  is  the  most  precious  thing  in  the  world, 
and  therefore  we  must  be  very  economical  in  the 
use  of  it."  We  have  been  economizing  in  both 
kinds  of  "precious"  light — physical  light  as  well 
as  mental  light. 

Should  windows  acquiring  a  certain  amount 
of  dirt,  say  six  times  more  quickly  than  others, 
be  washt  six  times  oftener?  This  means  six 
times  the  cost  to  the  city,  or  some  other  propor- 
tion that  would  annually  amount  to  several 
thousand  dollars  in  the  larger  cities. 

To  answer  yes  would  be  in  accordance  with  the 
philosophy  of  political  administration  in  numerous 


AND  HEALTH  135 

directions.  For  example,  we  derive  an  income 
("license  fees")  from  the  sale  of  intoxicants  which 
we  spend  many  times  over  in  "curing, "  "prevent- 
ing," "punishing"  the  logical  results.  We  allow 
"red  light "  neighborhoods  and  unsanitary  housing 
conditions  yielding  good  percentage  on  the  invest- 
ment (or  they  would  not  flourish  so  generally), 
and  we  spend  the  resulting  income,  taxes,  fines, 
hush  monies,  for  reformatories,  police,  courts, 
lawyers  and  judges.  I  speak  only  of  the  financial 
waste  in  these  illustrations  of  many  similar  fool- 
ishnesses, leaving  human  waste  to  recollection  and 
to  study  of  the  volumes  of  the  Census. 

There  is  a  story  going  of  a  test  for  feeble-minded- 
ness  used  in  a  hospital :  After  turning  on  the  water 
in  a  bathtub,  the  patient  is  given  a  dipper  and 
told  to  empty  it.  Those  who  are  sufficiently 
intelligent  begin  by  shutting  off  the  water,  the 
others  only  dip. 

We  desperately  need  intelligence  equal  to  find- 
ing out  and  shutting  off  the  cause  of  the  wrongs, 
immorality  and  ill  health  we  are  trying  to  get 
rid  of  by  merely  dipping.  Spending  money  on 
extra  window  washings  would  be  merely  dipping, 
for  these  women  studying  conditions  had  found 
out  that  bad  ventilation,  befouled  city  atmos- 
phere, over-crowding  and  bad  building  were  the 
cause  of  the  bad  illumination,  as  well  as  of  other 
serious  menaces  to  health. 

That  politicians  neglect  the  sanitation  of  schools 


136  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

is  no  excuse  for  mothers  doing  so.  Society 
insists  that  they  are  the  caretakers  of  children. 
The  Creator  holds  them  so  with  his  laws  of  birth, 
life  and  death.  Housekeeping  belongs  to  woman 
— and  she  shirks. 

Here  is  the  result  of  the  shirking  by  women  in 
Michigan.  The  State  Board  of  Health  has 
recently  publisht  some  facts  from  a  study  of 
tuberculosis  among  teachers.  Michigan  ought 
to  be  one  of  our  healthiest  states,  with  no  great 
cities  and  their  abnormal  crowding  to  depreciate 
vital  statistics. 

Of  the  deaths  between  twenty-five  and  thirty- 
four  years  of  age  among  all  people  in  Michigan 
during  certain  years,  one  quarter  (25.8  per  cent) 
was  due  to  tuberculosis;  but  among  teachers  it 
was  over  one-half  (52.4  per  cent).  Among  all 
ages  only  one-eleventh  (9.4  per  cent)  of  the 
general  death  rate  was  due  to  tuberculosis,  but 
among  teachers  the  rate  was  three  times  greater 
(27.6  per  cent). 

It  is  probably  as  bad  if  not  worse  in  each  state 
where  there  is  a  mothers'  club  and  teachers' 
association,  for  the  Michigan  figures  reflect  the 
statistics  of  the  Bureau  of  the  Census  for  the 
whole  country  concerning  teachers  and  tuberculo- 
sis. The  same  conditions  that  invite  it  in  teachers 
invite  it  in  their  pupils.  Teachers  (mostly 
women)  and  mothers  are  as  helpless  to  control 
this  sort  of  housekeeping  as  are  the  children. 


AND  HEALTH  137 

They  are  all  clast  together  politically,  as  idiots, 
minors,  women,  criminals,  etc.,  and  yet  the  state 
has  put  millions  of  dollars  into  the  education  of 
these  teachers  and  mothers  whom  it  refuses 
authority  in  their  own  special  business,  care  of 
children  and  housewifery. 

Janitors  wholly  untrained  in  sanitary  house- 
keeping, supervisors  and  politicians  also  untrained, 
make  these  conditions  inviting  disease  and  death 
for  those  who  are  at  their  mercy  politically  and 
legally.  Why?  Because  so  many  women  are 
willing  to  let  it  be  so.  That  is  the  chief  reason. 

The  standards  of  mothers  have  not  kept  pace 
with  the  needs  of  the  century.  The  good  mothers 
of  one  hundred  or  two  hundred  years  ago  under- 
stood their  duties  more  in  accordance  with  the 
needs  of  children,  especially  with  that  need  for 
mothers'  protection  as  well  as  fathers'  in  all  the 
interests  of  youth. 

The  old  house  with  fertile  acres  around  it — 
"home" — furnisht  food,  shelter,  work,  recreation, 
education,  under  the  supervision  of  the  mother 
quite  as  much  as  of  the  father.  There  were  weak 
points,  but  not  those  requiring  juvenile  and  divorce 
courts,  organized  charities  and  regiments  of  social 
workers.  These  new  institutions  betray  the 
weaknesses  in  mothers  and  fathers — children's 
needs  are  the  same.  I  am  reminded  of  a  protest- 
ing mother:  "Oh,  Doctor,  castor  oil  is  such 
an  old-fashioned  thing  for  the  baby!"  "And, 


138  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

Madam,  babies  are  very  old-fashioned  things, 
too." 

Youth  needs,  and  has  a  right  to  it  to-day 
exactly  as  of  old,  mothers'  as  well  as  fathers'  con- 
trol of  their  work-places,  whether  factory,  shop, 
office;  of  their  place  of  education  and  places  of 
entertainment,  whether  theatre,  show  or  rink;  and 
of  their  comings  and  goings  between  these  inter- 
ests, the  city  streets — formerly  all  a  part  of  home. 

The  house  for  eating,  sleeping  and  waiting  for 
school  hours,  work  hours,  outside  fun,  does  not 
correspond  to  the  original  conception  of  home, 
which  was  "village"  or  "estate"  (on  which 
villages  would  be).  Webster  gives  this  meaning 
as  obsolete,  and  gives  the  first  modern  synonym 
of  home,  "tenement."  With  tenements  for  homes 
("the  mothers'  place")  have  come  juvenile  courts 
and  all  the  other  methods  of  "dipping." 

We  must  restore  the  true  conception  of  home, 
the  house  and  its  sustaining  environment  all  under 
mothers'  as  well  as  fathers'  control  for  the  good  of  the 
children.  The  twentieth  century  city  is  the 
twentieth  century  home.  Its  details  affect  chil- 
dren after  the  same  old-fashioned  laws.  Mothers 
are  as  essential  as  fathers  in  managing  homes. 

Since  motherhood  implies  nourishing  and  pro- 
tecting after  birth,  mothers  even  more  than 
fathers  are  responsible  for  allowing  caretakers 
to  maintain  school  conditions  injurious  to  chil- 
dren's and  teachers'  health  to  the  extent  that 


AND  HEALTH  139 

statistics  show  existing  and  also  show  preventable. 
That  men  are  not  doing  well  this  ages  long  wo- 
man's work  of  housekeeping,  home  making,  care 
of  children,  willing  tho  they  are  to  shoulder  it 
all,  is  because  they  cannot  today  any  more  than 
in  the  days  when  mothers  willingly  attended  to  it. 
Between  the  woman's  shirking  and  the  man's 
inability  pupils  and  teachers  are  helpless  in  their 
roles  inviting  tuberculosis,  infant  mortality,  and 
other  vital  rates  disgracing  us  among  the  peoples 
of  the  world. 

In  addition  to  this  study  of  lighting  and  of 
removal  of  dirt  and  dust  made  by  the  Boston 
women,  they  had  studies  also  made  of  school 
dust  bacteria.  Only  occasional  contagious  disease 
germs  are  found  in  dust,  as  we  have  already 
learned,  drying  and  light  killing  most  of  these 
bacteria  very  soon.  Pus  forming  germs  however 
are  in  great  abundance.  Their  studies  of  dust 
were  chiefly  valuable  as  suggesting  the  amount 
of  dirt.  They  found  that  after  sweeping  with 
damp  sawdust,  the  numbers  of  micro-organisms 
were  very  little  reduced,  except  as  the  quantity 
of  dust  removed  carried  them  with  it;  but  when 
the  sawdust  was  moistened  with  a  solution  of 
formaldehyde  nearly  all  bacteria  were  destroyed 
in  cultures  made  from  the  floor  dust  immediately 
after. 

They  investigated  oil  dust  layers,  the  kerosene 
dustless  broom  of  which  we  have  spoken,  and 


140  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

vacuum  cleaning;  door  mats  and  shoe  brushes. 
They  measured  air  currents  in  ventilating  shafts 
with  an  anemometer,  another  pioneer  use  of  an 
instrument  of  precision  in  school  sanitation.  In 
sixteen  buildings  they  found  the  ventilating  shaft 
ended  in  the  attic,  which  in  some  cases  was  kept 
closed,  or  it  connected  with  the  outer  air  only 
thru  ventilators  in  the  roof.  In  some  cases  the 
ventilating  shafts  from  water-closets  and  from 
classrooms  ended  out  of  doors  at  the  same  point, 
so  that  when  there  was  a  back  draft  into  the  room, 
perhaps  caused  by  the  wind,  it  carried  with  it  the 
foul  air  from  sanitaries.  They  re-discovered  126 
schools  whose  sanitaries  had  been  repeatedly  con- 
demned by  the  city  board  of  health,  with  recom- 
mendations that  they  be  abolisht. 

They  investigated  playgrounds,  also,  and  among 
various  items  found  136  with  346  cesspools,  9 
cesspools  having  no  sewer  connection,  29  being 
for  sewage,  the  others  for  surface  water;  all  were 
cleaned  very  irregularly,  only  7  as  often  as  twice 
a  year,  and  10  schools  reported  they  were  never 
cleaned. 

They  investigated  fire  escapes  and  found 
equally  reckless  indifference  to  the  safety  of 
children.  But  these  are  "other  stories,"  not 
janitors'  work.  They  are  significant  of  what 
awaits  mothers  who  look  out  for  their  children's 
welfare,  for  conditions  corresponding  to  these  are 
found  wherever  any  sanitary  study  has  been 
undertaken. 


AND  HEALTH  141 

They  had  an  exhibit  showing  local  conditions, 
data  collected  from  other  cities,  standards  of 
sanitation,  apparatus  and  methods,  with  many 
more  items.  It  was  an  extremely  interesting 
occasion,  instructive  and  stimulating  as  well;  the 
first  and  thus  far  the  only  school  housecleaning 
exhibit  in  the  country.  Mothers'  clubs  with  the 
assistance  of  capable  workers  can  render  a  very 
great  service  that  is  waiting  for  some  one  to  per- 
form in  their  community,  if  they  make  honest 
studies  of  school  cleanliness  and  bring  them  to 
public  attention. 

The  State  Commissioner  of  Health  of  Pennsyl- 
vania inspected  3,572  country  schools  during  this 
last  school  year  (1911-1912),  and  reports  only  536 
in  a  sanitary  condition.  There  are  3,036 — more 
than  five-sixths  of  the  inspected  schools — pro- 
nounced unsanitary.  Mothers  are  all  around  each 
of  these  schools  sending  their  children  to  them — 
and  doing  nothing  about  these  things.  If  they 
were  doing  what  they  should,  and  doing  it  earn- 
estly, the  unsanitary  conditions  certainly  would  not 
have  waited  to  be  discovered  by  an  official  investi- 
gator from  outside  the  community.  Other  equally 
serious  reports  of  the  sanitary  conditions  of  other 
groups  of  schools  are  to  be  found  in  the  annual 
reports  of  the  Commissioner  for  1907,  1908,  1909, 
and  in  1910  when  publisht.  The  schools  in 
Pennsylvania  are  no  worse  than  in  other  states. 
Pennsylvania  has  the  advantage  of  a  Department 


142  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

of  Health  that  understands  this  is  one  of  the  most 
fundamental  matters  in  public  health  work. 


March 

Another  study  of  schoolrooms 

This  persistent  and  intelligent  study  by  college 
women  in  Boston,  and  their  frank  admission  that 
Boston's  methods  were  especially  poor  as  com- 
pared with  the  methods  officially  reported  in 
several  hundred  schools  in  a  score  of  large  cities 
stimulated,  as  already  said,  similar  studies  within 
those  ten  years.  With  no  exception  thruout 
the  country  the  ignorance  and  indifference  of 
officials  and  parents  concerning  children's  sanitary 
surroundings  at  school  were  confirmed. 

"Officially  reported" — reports  on  cleanliness 
and  sanitation,  like  reports  on  classwork  and 
finances,  unless  details  are  standardized  by 
accurate  measurements  and  records,  are  of  little 
value.  We  have  seen  that  official  rules  are  not 
lived  up  to,  a  fact  that  official  reports  do  not  make 
known,  except  official  reports  of  medical  inspec- 
tors and  nurses,  of  health  officials  and  our  Bureau 
of  the  Census,  all  of  which  tell  us  sad  facts  of 
preventable  ill  health  and  death  among  school 
children. 


AND  HEALTH  143 

Regular  observations,  measurements  and  rec- 
ords are  the  only  reliable  basis  for  school  sani- 
tation, standardizing  physical  conditions  as  we 
are  beginning  to  standardize  mental  acquire- 
ments, and  have  long  standardized  details  involv- 
ing money  interests.  It  is  in  this  direction, 
measuring  sanitary  details  by  instruments  of 
precision  and  keeping  records,  that  we  are  now 
growing. 

A  study  was  recently  made  of  a  large  school  in 
the  neighborhood  of  a  great  university  from  which 
this  kind  of  wisdom  is  at  last  beginning  to  over- 
flow. It  was  made  by  one  of  the  students  in  its 
college  of  education.  There  are  universities  with- 
out enough  such  wisdom  to  overflow,  if  one  may 
judge  from  the  conditions  of  schoolhouses  in  their 
shadow.  There  is  always  at  hand  abundance  of 
"clinical  material  "in  school  sanitation  for  every 
institution  training  teachers.  Mothers'  clubs 
must  ask  them,  and  must  keep  on  asking  them 
until  the  results  wanted  are  secured,  for  it  does 
them  good,  as  well  as  the  unsanitary  schools,  when 
they  come  out  of  their  laboratories  and  round 
tables  and  do  real  things,  adapting  scientific 
and  theoretic  studies  to  the  needs  of  the  commu- 
nity that  sustains  them. 

This  study  began  with  grounds  and  buildings, 
and  among  other  things  found  that  trees  shaded 
the  windows  cutting  off  necessary  illumination, 
and  that  the  school  was  directly  in  the  path  of 


144  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

the  prevailing  wind  bringing  disagreeable  odors 
from  a  gas  plant.  No  shrewd  citizen  would  build 
even  a  little  $5,000  home  for  himself  and  children 
in  such  a  location,  nor  permit  the  erection  of  a 
gas  plant  to  become  a  nuisance.  But  for  many 
years  those  citizens  had  thought  it  good  enough 
for  children  and  teachers — helpless  to  escape  and 
disciplined  for  complaining. 

Many  details  of  heating  and  ventilating  were 
bad.  One  discovery  was  literally  amazing.  There 
was  found  an  unknown  "aspirating  chimney". 
Years  before,  in  renewing  the  heating  apparatus, 
flues  for  the  outlet  of  foul  air  had  been  opened 
from  each  room  into  a  central  chimney,  and  a 
small  stove  placed  in  the  basement  at  the  bottom 
of  the  chimney. 

The  heat  from  the  stove  sweeping  up  thru  such 
a  chimney  to  escape  at  the  top  sucks  air  from  the 
rooms,  carrying  off  some  bad  air,  drawing  heat 
into  the  rooms  from  registers,  and  creating  air 
currents  that  make  rooms  much  more  comfortable. 
The  principal  and  janitor,  and  the  unsalaried 
school  officials  knew  nothing  of  this  good  help 
to  ventilation  which  taxpayers'  money  had 
provided,  there  had  never  been  a  fire  in  the  stove, 
and  what  the  teachers  and  children  endured  will 
be  learned  when  the  measurements  are  told. 

There  was  absolutely  no  reasonable  excuse  for 
this  neglect.  It  was  biologicly  criminal;  but 
civil  laws  do  not  make  it  so,  as  they  do  not  make 


AND  HEALTH  145 

many  other  slow  injuries  of  children  with  bad  air. 
They  are  just  beginning  to  take  up  the  slow 
poisonings  of  workers  by  phosphorus  and  lead  in 
certain  occupations.  After  a  while  the  children's 
turn  will  come,  perhaps  not  today's  children  hi 
which  some  of  us  are  interested;  they  will  go  the 
way  of  the  others,  taking  chances  with  tuberculo- 
sis, anemia  and  all  the  rest.  The  as  yet  unborn 
children  that  survive  to  school  days  will  have 
good  housekeeping  at  school,  if  mothers  say  so,  and 
stick  to  it. 

A  member  of  a  mothers'  club  that  is  working  on 
school  housecleaning  matters  tells  me  that  they 
also  have  found  the  same  kind  of  unused  ventilat- 
ing chimney  in  one  of  their  schools.  We  may 
justly  blame  principals,  janitors  and  other  city 
officials;  but  in  the  end,  however,  it  is  the  indiffer- 
ence, and  negligence  of  fathers  and  mothers,  es- 
pecially mothers,  and  most  especially  organized 
mothers  in  these  two  cities,  for  one  is  in  the 
state  of  New  York  where  women  have  tax- 
paying  and  school  suffrage;  while  the  other  is 
in  Massachusetts  where  women  have  school 
suffrage.  That  the  New  York  condition  was 
discovered  and  promptly  remedied  was  due  to  a 
university  student — not  to  the  interested  mother 
of  any  pupil  in  the  school;  the  Massachusetts  flue 
is  waiting  for  something  to  turn  up. 

An  anemometer  is  a  little  wheel  so  constructed 
as  to  whirl  in  currents  of  air.  There  is  a  scale 
10 


146  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

to  measure  the  rate  of  whirling,  that  is,  the 
strength  of  the  current  of  air.  This  student 
found  that  the  anemometer  did  not  turn  in  any 
of  the  foul  air  flues — there  was  no  air  going  out. 
Any  ventilating  flue  can  be  tested  by  an  anemome- 
ter. It  does  not  cost  much,  and  any  club  can 
provide  one  for  the  use  of  its  schools. 

School  officials  are  quite  apt  to  point  out  their 
flues  for  ventilation,  and  quite  as  apt  not  to 
know  whether  there  are  any  air  currents  or  suffi- 
cient air  currents  passing  thru  them.  The 
currents  may  be  by  accident  inward  instead  of 
outward.  This  was  sometimes  the  case  in  a 
certain  very  expensive  "system  of  ventilation" 
that  was  installed  in  many  schools  a  few  years  ago. 
The  system  ventilated  the  water-closets  and  rooms 
thru  the  same  or  connecting  flues,  and  when  things 
were  not  just  right  down  below  or  up  above  the 
current  blew  into  the  rooms  instead  of  out! 

That  system  is  gone  by,  and  we  are  spending 
more  hundreds  of  thousands  on  others  that  require 
windows  to  be  "  hermetically  sealed. "  But  we  are 
getting  around  that  by  all  teachers  in  a  building 
agreeing  to  open  their  windows  at  exactly  the 
same  moment  every  hour  for  five  minutes,  all 
flushing  out  their  rooms  together  (thus  not  up- 
setting the  direction  of  air  currents  in  the  "sys- 
tem" to  the  disadvantage  of  certain  rooms) — 
flushing  with  the  kind  of  air  we  were  given  to 
breathe  all  the  time. 


AND  HEALTH  147 

This  is  one  step  in  advance.  Open  air  rooms  is 
another.  The  "just  as  good"  air  reminds  one 
of  the  patent  medicines  that  people  pay  many 
times  more  for  than  they  would  pay  for  the  same 
drugs  put  up  by  the  pharmacist,  and  that  are 
claimed  to  be  "just  as  good"  as  the  real  thing 
which  they  often  are  not. 

A  very  expensive  instrument,  requiring  delicate 
handling,  was  used  to  measure  the  carbon  dioxid 
in  the  air  of  these  rooms,  the  Pettersson-Palm- 
qvist  apparatus.  When  school  opened  there  was 
the  proper  amount  of  carbon  dioxid  in  the  air,  4 
parts  of  the  gas  in  10,000  parts  of  air,  as  out  of 
doors.  Several  measurements  at  different  hours 
showed  that  it  increast  very  rapidly,  in  a  few 
minutes  being  10  parts,  instead  of  4,  and  growing 
until  it  was  20  or  24  or  even  29  parts.  Different 
rooms  measured  differently.  These  high  tests 
mean  that  pupils  breathed  nearly  all  day  what  is 
called  "very  bad  air"  technically  by  engineers. 
It  is  not  the  carbon  dioxid  that  does  the  harm; 
but  it  is  the  conditions  that  so  much  carbon 
dioxid  means. 

One  thing  it  shows  is  that  there  are  no  air 
currents  blowing  out  stale  air  and  blowing  in 
fresh.  All  the  air  breathed,  or  at  least  very  much 
of  it,  lies  stagnant  to  be  breathed  again.  That 
accounts  for  the  bad  smells  in  all  such  rooms,  odors 
from  the  breath,  mouth,  clothing  and  bodies. 
We  do  not  yet  know  all  about  the  effects  of  this 
rebreathed  air  on  children  during  school  years. 


148  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

Professor  C.-E.  A.  Winslow,  in  Proceedings  of 
the  National  Education  Association,  1911,  which  the 
public  library  or  some  teacher  has  in  every  com- 
munity, tells  of  experiments  proving  the  untruth 
of  the  old  idea  that  carbon  dioxid  is  poisonous  in 
our  rooms;  proving  that  it  never  can  accumulate 
in  an  ordinary  room  in  sufficient  quantity  to  do 
harm.  Experiments  were  tried  where  the  gas  was 
sixty  times  more  than  in  outside  air,  but  so  long  as 
the  chamber  was  cool  there  was  no  discomfort,  and 
the  people  experimented  on  continued  with  their 
work. 

When  the  temperature  got  up  in  the  seventies 
and  eighties,  where  it  very  often  is  in  our  schools, 
then  the  discomfort  was  great,  being  shown  by 
flusht  and  perspiring  faces  and  great  restlessness. 
When  the  electric  fan  was  started,  blowing  over 
and  cooling  them,  they  were  at  once  comfortable 
again  altho  the  air  was  just  as  hot  and  contained 
just  as  much  carbon  dioxid  and  other  products  of 
breathing.  They  continued  their  work  for  several 
days  under  these  conditions,  but  it  is  not  proved 
that  children  could  grow  into  healthy  adults  with 
that  kind  of  atmosphere.  It  is  proved  by  these 
and  other  experiments  that  the  high  temperatures 
and  stagnant  air  in  our  schools  have  much  to  do 
with  ill  health  and  discomfort;  that  it  is  not  the 
carbon  dioxid,  but  the  conditions  that  it  indicates 
that  are  harmful. 

Disease  germs  that  have  gained  entrance  to  the 


AND  HEALTH  149 

body  are  destroyed  by  protective  cells  in  the  blood, 
phagocytes,  and  in  other  ways.  The  healthier 
the  child,  the  more  of  the  phagocytes.  One  of 
the  chief  functions  of  the  skin  and  of  the  mucous 
membrane  lining  nose,  throat  and  bronchial  tubes, 
is  to  prevent  germs  getting  in.  When  these 
defenders  are  relaxt  (flusht  and  perspiring)  in 
temperatures  of  70°  to  85°,  as  in  schoolrooms,  two 
dangers  result;  the  vital  processes  inside  the 
body  controlling  phagocytes  are  lessened  because 
so  much  of  the  blood  is  in  the  skin,  and  the  tonic 
contraction  of  the  skin  for  protective  purposes  is 
diminisht. 

The  skin  toned  up  by  the  morning  dash  of  cold 
water,  by  cool  rooms  and  by  exercise  helps  much 
to  prevent  ill  health  and  disease.  Flabby,  easily 
chilled  because  of  "coddling"  in  warmth,  it  is  a 
part  of  the  "softness "  dreaded  by  every  thorobred 
English  boy.  "Am  I  soft,  Mother?"  fell  from  the 
roof  of  the  garden  house.  Keener  dismay  never 
rang  in  any  voice  of  nine.  Mother,  after  due 
reflection  on  the  serious  question,  sent  up  a 
reassuring  "No,  Jack" — and  the  tension  was 
relieved. 

There  are  always  more  germs  of  contagious 
diseases  in  a  roomful  of  people.  The  warmer 
the  room,  the  less  their  resistance  for  the  reasons 
we  have  given.  It  is  most  important,  therefore, 
that  schoolrooms  be  kept  scrupulously  clean  and 
at  the  safer  temperature  of  the  60's,  for  these 


150  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

reasons  as  well  as  because  the  brain  works  easier 
and  better  with  its  due  supply  of  blood  not 
diverted  to  the  skin.  Some  teachers  have  their 
rooms  disconnected  from  the  heating  apparatus, 
so  that  they  can  use  their  windows  as  they  please, 
getting  all  the  heat  they  need  from  corridors.  The 
pupils  become  restless  and  indifferent  when  by 
accident  registers  are  left  open.  Their  red  cheeks 
and  bright  eager  faces  during  school  hours  is  a 
lesson  to  housekeepers. 

A  few  days  ago  I  was  on  the  Twentieth  Century 
Limited  from  Boston  to  Albany,  the  kind  of  train 
where  one  pays  extra  fare  for  elegance  or  comfort, 
I  have  never  been  sure  which.  On  this  occasion 
the  heat  was  stifling.  I  consulted  a  thermometer 
— as  we  usually  do  not  find  one,  probably  that 
is  one  of  the  reasons  for  extra  fare — and  found  it 
74°.  Summoning  my  courage  and  the  fact,  I 
protested  to  the  Pullman  porter.  He  started  an 
electric  fan  in  my  direction,  and  I  was  comforta- 
ble, altho  with  scruples  against  being  so  for  the 
temperature  of  the  air  was  no  lower  and  it  was  no 
"fresher."  But  I  was  entirely  comfortable  until 
he  stopt  the  fan  about  quarter  of  an  hour  before 
my  station  when  the  air  seemed  worse  than  before. 


AND  HEALTH  151 

April 

Measuring  health  conditions 

We  are  surrounded  by  what  some  one  has  called 
an  "aerial  blanket" — the  layer  of  air  next  the 
skin  warmed  and  moistened  by  heat  and  evapora- 
tion from  it.  The  longer  the  blanket  lies  there 
the  warmer  and  moister  it  becomes,  nearing  the 
temperature  of  the  body  (98.8°)  which  is  "hot 
weather."  The  warmer  the  body  and  its  aerial 
blanket  become,  the  more  the  body  perspires,  as 
that  is  one  way  its  temperature  is  kept  down,  the 
evaporation  of  perspiration  cooling  the  body. 
But  if  the  air  is  already  moist  so  that  perspiration 
does  not  dry  off  quickly  the  aerial  blanket  becomes 
almost  as  moist  as  the  skin.  The  blanket  being 
as  warm  and  moist  as  the  skin,  the  heat  contin- 
ually being  produced  in  the  body  accumulates,  the 
blood  vessels  of  the  skin  dilate  that  more  cooling 
may  go  on  thru  the  skin,  leaving  the  heart  and 
brain  with  much  less  blood,  therefore  their  work  is 
much  harder,  and  all  the  processes  of  life  become 
more  difficult;  sometimes  a  person  faints  for  this 
reason.  But  fainting  is  extreme.  The  usual 
result  of  hot  rooms  is  to  make  work  more  exhaust- 
ing, the  action  of  heart  and  brain  being  more 
difficult  because  the  blood  is  in  the  skin  to  keep  the 
temperature  from  fever  conditions. 

On  a  hot  damp  breezeless  day  in  August  we  are 
uncomfortable  for  the  same  reason.  The  blanket 
may  become  warmer  and  moister  than  the  skin, 


152  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

with  no  wind  to  blow  it  off  and  to  bring  a  fresher 
blanket.  We  use  fans  instead,  and  avoid  heavy 
mental  work. 

The  skin  is  the  great  temperature  regulator  of 
the  body,  eliminating  waste  with  its  perspiration, 
and  keeping  its  sense  of  touch  in  working  order, 
which  means  keeping  a  large  part — a  very  large 
part  of  the  nervous  system  "fit,"  as  is  realized 
when  one  recalls  the  "lacelike  model"  in  Preven- 
tion of  School  Fatigue.  The  nervous  system  con- 
trols our  general  health,  so  that  the  skin  and  its 
functions  are  very  important  for  an  efficient  life. 

As  the  nerve  endings  in  the  eyes  need  light 
waves  in  order  that  eyes  may  see,  and  in  the  ears 
need  sound  waves  in  order  to  hear,  so,  we  are 
finding  out,  the  nerve  endings  in  the  skin  need 
motion  waves — air  motion,  and  many  other  kinds 
— in  order  to  keep  in  health.  Without  motion  of 
many  kinds  to  stimulate  its  nerve  endings,  it 
loses  its  vitality  and  so  affects  the  health,  as, 
without  light,  eyes  lose  power  of  vision,  and  as 
ears  must  have  sounds  to  keep  in  normal  condi- 
tion. 

A  child  rolling  on  the  brown  bed  of  needles  un- 
der Adirondack  pines  watcht  thru  summer  days 
the  rippling  waves  of  heat  rising  from  the  lawn 
sloping  toward  the  sun,  and  made  a  little  "  theory 
of  what  life  is"— that  it  is  motion,  of  many  kinds 
but  always  motion;  the  motion  of  wind,  water, 
heat,  light,  sound,  electricity  and  finally,  motion 


AND  HEALTH  153 

in  protoplasm  and  all  living  things,  for  in  the 
country  school  the  children  had  these  every  day 
events  because  they  are  so  much  more  fascinating 
than  story  telling.  Finally  protoplasm,  the 
theory  had  it,  in  a  universe  of  motion,  living  by  its 
own  chemical  motions  resulting  in  energies,  muscu- 
lar, mental  and  others. 

The  little  theory  that  the  same  phenomenon 
has  started  in  other  young  minds  was  elaborated 
into  the  child's  teens,  when  it  disappeared  in 
subconsciousness,  which  means  it  was  forgotten. 
The  child  was  not  so  far  out  of  the  way  it  seems, 
now  that  we  find  motion  in  schoolroom  air  is 
as  important  as  cool  temperature  and  sufficient 
humidity.  The  object  of  ventilation  being  to 
make  house  air  like  outdoor  air,  we  must  supply 
in  it  this  bombardment  of  tiny  waves  of  all  sorts 
of  energies  coming  from  infinite  space,  to  keep  the 
sensory  and  other  functions  in  health.  All  this 
motion  of  open  air  is  so  diminisht  by  walls  that 
feelings  stagnate,  vitality  is  lessened,  and  there- 
fore it  must  be  supplied  or  restored;  hence  electric 
fans  and  other  devices  to  keep  air  in  motion,  as 
well  as  devices  for  right  temperatures  and  humid- 
ity. 

The  question  may  yet  arise  whether  fan  waves 
are  "  just  as  good "  as  outdoor  waves ;  and 
whether  there  are  still  other  qualities  in  open  air 
needed  for  indoor  air  and  health.  Dr.  Leonard 
Hill  has  an  interesting  article  on  "Stuffy  Rooms" 


154  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  October,  1912, 
explaining  the  reasons  for  cool  rooms  with  suffi- 
cient humidity  and  motion  in  the  air.  We  are  not 
sure  of  any  "system"  in  the  long  run.  We  are 
entirely  sure  of  open  air.  We  should  not  pay  for 
systems  with  children's  lives,  when  "the  real 
thing"  can  be  had — and  so  much  else  besides — by 
opening  windows  or  going  out  of  doors. 

In  the  school  building  which  the  university 
student  examined  he  measured  the  humidity  with 
a  "whirling  wet-dry  bulb  thermometer,"  some- 
thing mothers  can  supply  for  their  children's 
school  as  a  Christmas  present,  or  valentine;  some- 
thing we  shall  possibly  use  in  our  homes  as  com- 
monly as  the  ordinary  dry  bulb  thermometer. 
Another  name  for  it  is  hygrometer,  because  it 
measures  the  moisture  in  the  air.  There  are 
several  kinds  of  hygrometers,  this  being  the  one 
used  and  recommended  by  the  United  States 
Weather  Bureau. 

It  consists  of  two  thermometers  fastened  to  a 
handle,  one  bulb  wrapt  with  a  wet  cloth.  After 
whirling  them  by  the  handle  for  a  few  minutes 
they  are  read.  The  dry  bulb  thermometer  reads 
as  before,  the  temperature  of  the  room;  the 
evaporation  from  the  cloth  has  cooled  the  other, 
so  that  it  reads  lower,  according  to  the  amount  of 
evaporation  that  has  taken  place,  which  depends 
on  the  amount  of  humidity  already  in  the  air. 
The  difference  between  the  two  readings  on  a 


AND  HEALTH  155 

basis  of  the  dry  bulb  reading  is  compared  with 
tables  issued  by  the  Weather  Bureau  (Bulletin  No. 
235),  and  gives  the  "relative  humidity"  that  we 
are  wishing  to  regulate  in  living  rooms  for  health's 
sake. 

The  student  found  the  relative  humidity  in  the 
schoolrooms  tested  (on  rainy  days  when  it  would 
be  supposed  to  be  high)  was  from  20  to  30  per  cent. 
This  means  that  the  air  breathed  by  the  children 
held  only  one-fifth  (20  per  cent)  of  what  it  could 
hold  at  that  same  temperature.  This  is  said  to  be 
worse  than  any  desert  where  vegetation  never 
grows.  Our  schools  all  over  the  country  with  few 
exceptions  are  as  arid  as  this  in  the  cold  months 
when  artificial  heat  is  used  and  direct  open  air 
is  shut  out.  The  normal  relative  humidity  of 
open  air  at  a  temperature  between  50°  and  70°  is 
about  60  per  cent. 

The  parcht  air  irritates  respiratory  passages 
in  its  excessive  demand  for  moisture.  This  helps 
produce  catarrh  of  nose,  throat  and  bronchial 
tubes,  thus  putting  their  mucous  membrane 
linings  in  the  right  condition,  helpt  on  by  school 
dust,  for  growth  of  various  sorts  of  micro-organ- 
isms, such  as  pus  cells  and  tubercle  bacilli.  It 
probably  injures  in  other  ways  not  well  under- 
stood. 

If  any  of  these  children  should  undertake  that 
most  delightful  and  profitable  occupation,  school 
gardening,  and  should  go  for  their  seeds  to  the 


156  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

shop  I  visited  this  morning,  they  would  be  quite 
probably  served  by  the  same  clerk.  He  appears 
in  an  advanced  stage  of  tuberculosis,  dispensing 
its  seeds  gratis  to  the  crowd  of  customers.  He 
would  cough  in  the  children's  faces  as  he  coughed 
in  mine  a  score  of  times.  The  tubercle  bacilli 
on  the  fine  invisible  droplets  that  always  fly  from 
the  mouth  in  sneezing,  coughing  and  energetic 
speaking  would  be  breathed  and  swallowed  by  the 
children  already  prepared  to  "take"  them  by 
badly  ventilated  schoolrooms.  This  is  part  of 
our  unsystematic  and  shortsighted  campaign 
against  tuberculosis  that  is  not  reducing  its  death 
rate  any  faster,  sometimes  not  as  fast  as  the 
general  death  rate  is  diminishing.  It  is  "penny 
wise"  to  care  for  a  few  already  tuberculous,  and 
"pound  foolish"  to  continue  practices  lessening 
the  resistance  of  children,  particularly  in  the 
schools — the  most  profoundly  influential  of  any 
government's  institutions. 

This  mouth  spray  or  shower  of  droplets  is 
carried  by  air  currents  in  every  direction  around 
a  person  for  distances  of  even  ten  or  fifteen  feet. 
Some  people  scatter  it  more  than  others.  It 
usually  settles  to  the  floor  in  ten  or  twenty 
minutes.  The  shower  is  so  thin,  and  for  other 
reasons,  investigators  sometimes  find  very  few,  or 
none  of  the  special  germs  for  which  they  search. 
But  they  have  found  near  consumptive  coughers 
enough  to  prove  this  a  matter  of  importance. 


AND  HEALTH  157 

The  danger  from  swallowing  disease  germs  in 
fresh  saliva  on  cups  is  probably  greater  than  from 
this  scattering  in  the  air.  There  is,  however, 
when  near  a  person  great  danger  of  inhaling  them 
or  swallowing  them  from  the  saliva  droplets 
either  while  in  the  air  or  after  they  have  settled 
on  food  or  other  object  near  the  cough  or  sneeze. 
It  is  imperative  that  children  (and  everyone  else) 
cover  their  mouths  with  a  handkerchief  (or  hand 
at  least,  which  then  needs  washing)  to  catch  this 
spray  when  sneezing  and  coughing. 

Professor  Winslow  states  that  experimenters 
who  are  studying  mouth  droplets  advise  at  least 
forty  inches  of  space  between  the  heads  of  workers 
in  factories  and  offices.  The  heads  of  children  in 
assembly  and  class  rooms  are  often  nearer  than 
this.  I  am  never  in  a  roomful  of  school  children 
without  seeing  many  even  "nice"  ones  coughing 
"all  over"  their  neighbors. 

One  wonders  what  teachers  and  parents  do  with 
their  opportunities  for  correcting  the  nasty  habit. 
In  a  recitation  on  physiology  and  hygiene  that 
I  saw  last  winter  in  a  famous  school  from  which 
many  preachments  go  out  about  hygiene,  the  boys 
and  girls  with  colds  (and  without),  with  hardly 
three  feet  between  their  heads,  coughed  freely  in 
every  direction  while  they  talked  about  germs  on 
long  skirts! 

It  would  aid  mightily  to  improve  our  vital 
statistics  if  mothers — the  home  makers — would 


158  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

keep  suitable  school  homes,  and  teach  children  to 
cover  their  mouths  and  turn  from  others  when  they 
cough,  as  this  salesman's  mother  and  teachers  had 
failed  to  do. 

The  student  investigator  studied  the  lighting 
of  the  rooms,  but  not  with  a  photometer  as  was 
done  at  Boston.  He  found  the  building  well 
arranged  for  illumination.  His  report  criticized 
teachers  for  not  adjusting  shades  properly; 
criticized  the  dirt  on  windows  that  cut  off  light 
(see  Boston  measurements  of  how  much);  the 
plants  in  the  windows  that  did  the  same,  and  the 
seating  of  children  in  the  darkest  row  of  seats  when 
there  were  vacant  seats  near  the  windows.  He 
tested  the  vision  of  the  children  and  found  as  we 
always  find,  a  large  percentage  defective.  When 
children  enter  school  probably  eighty  out  of 
every  hundred  have  perfect  eyes.  Four  years 
later  only  about  sixty-five  in  a  hundred  have 
them,  and  four  years  later  still  fewer.  It  is 
mothers  and  fathers  who  allow  dirty  windows  to 
blight  their  children  for  life.  No  one  so  surely  as 
they  can  put  an  end  to  these  wrongs. 

He  found  water-closets  built  in  the  middle  of 
the  house,  with  rooms  around  them;  dimly 
lighted  and  with  no  sunshine;  no  heat  to  create 
currents  of  air  for  ventilating  thru  the  top  win- 
dows; deodorizers  used  instead  of  properly  clean- 
ing the  closets — the  odor  being  evident  thruout 


AND  HEALTH  159 

the  building.     This  is  "a  first  class  school"  in  the 
community. 

He  found  the  common  cup  and  towel  (1910). 
The  mouth  contents  on  such  cups  have  been 
already  quoted  from  Professor  Davison  in  dis- 
cussing "Clean  Schoolhouses."  Bacteriologists 
who  have  studied  the  common  towel  used  in 
schools,  factories,  railway  stations,  etc.  have 
found  it  as  bad  or  worse;  contaminated  with 
fecal  matter  and  bacteria  from  urine  and  bowel, 
with  germs  of  trachoma  and  the  gonococcus,  both 
causing  blindness.  Actual  cases  of  blindness  in 
school  children  and  teachers  have  been  traced  to 
the  school  towel;  and  epidemics  of  "pink  eye" 
have  been  due  to  its  use.  Nine  states  have  taken 
action  against  the  use  of  the  common  towel,  it  is 
stated  in  Public  Health  Bulletin  No.  57,  publisht 
August,  1912,  by  the  direction  of  the  Surgeon 
General;  Connecticut,  Massachusetts  and  Wis- 
consin by  law;  Indiana,  Kansas,  Louisiana, 
Missouri,  South  Carolina,  and  Washington  by 
regulation  of  the  State  Board  of  Health.  The 
Journal  of  The  American  Medical  Association  has 
recently  (December  14,  1912)  publisht  a  note 
that  interstate  quarantine  regulations  by  the 
Treasury  Department  have  just  ordered  the 
abolition  of  the  common  towel  from  railroad  cars, 
steamers  and  other  interstate  vehicles  and 
stations.  It  still  remains  for  mothers  to  care  as 


160  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

much  for  their  children  in  the  very  great  majority 
of  schools. 

The  student  found  floors  with  wide  cracks  and 
very  dirty.  He  found  a  janitor  that  swept 
corridors  during  school  hours,  filling  the  whole 
building  with  fine  dust,  as  do  very  many  janitors. 
It  ought  to  be  made  a  legal  offense  on  the  part  of 
the  janitor,  quite  as  much  as  is  polluting  public 
water  supplies  with  sewage,  or  spitting  on  side- 
walks, and  on  the  part  of  every  principal  who  per- 
mits it. 

These  conditions,  some  or  all  of  them,  reported 
by  the  student  are  found  in  every  city  and  county 
in  the  country,  probably  with  no  exception,  where 
there  are  schools.  So  negligent  are  we  of  chil- 
dren's health  that  many  worse  ones  are  to  be  found. 
That  it  is  largely  due  to  parental  and  public 
indifference  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  many  of  the 
recommendations  for  greater  cleanliness  made  as  a 
result  of  the  study  were  promptly  carried  out  by 
the  school  authorities. 

Some  of  these  that  mothers  also  could  probably 
secure  when  necessary  are  given  (with  my  paren- 
theses), and  the  whole  report  is  to  be  found  in  The 
Pedagogical  Seminary,  December,  1910. 

1.  Trim  the  trees  in  and  about  the  school 
yard. 

2.  Put  the  stove  at  the  bottom  of  the  aspirat- 
ing chimney  into  condition  for  use,  and 


AND  HEALTH  161 

instruct  the  janitor  to  maintain  a  fire 
therein  whenever  artificial  heating  is  in 
use.  (Why  not  a  fire  whenever  the  rooms 
are  in  use?) 

3.  Instruct    the    janitor    and    teachers    to 
keep  the  outlet  flues  always  open. 

4.  Have  the  windows  thoroly  cleaned,  and 
instruct  the  janitor  to  clean  them  as  often 
as  necessary.     (The  last  three  words  are 
the    weak    point,    as    the    Boston    study 
proves.) 

5  and  6.  Have  intelligent  management  of 
shades,  and  allow  no  plants  to  reduce 
illumination  harmfully. 

7.  Seat  children  so  as  to  secure  the  best 
light,  and  those  with  defective  vision  next 
windows,  with  myopic  children  in  the  front 
seats. 

9.  Insist  on  proper  cleaning  of  water-closets 
and  urinals. 

10.  Have  artificial  lights  put  in  toilet  rooms 
when  natural  light  is  not  enough  to  ensure 
cleanliness. 

12.  Install  a  bubble  fountain  and  abolish 
the  common  drinking  cup.     (Have  chil- 
dren make  paper  cups  meanwhile.) 

13.  Inexpensive    individual    drying    cloths, 
such  as  are  used  in  Pullman  cars,  instead  of 
common  towel.     (There  are  also  individual 
towels  of  paper,  to  burn  after  using,  which 

11 


162  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

are  in  some  places  cheaper  than  laundering 
towels.) 

14.  Renovate  floors  by  cleaning,  scraping  and 
crack-filling;    then  oil.     (If  possible  use 
linoleum   as   suggested    in    Clean   School- 
houses.) 

15.  Stop    all   sweeping   while    school   is    in 
session.     Have  entire  building  swept  daily 
after  the  afternoon  session,   and  dusted 
daily  before  the  morning  session.     (Open 
windows  during  dusting,  and  finish  it  at 
least  hah*  an  hour  before  school  opens;  an 
hour    would    be    better.)     Wash    entire 
building  every  Saturday.   (!!) 

So  far,  excellent.  The  trouble  with  rules  and 
other  good  intentions  is  that  they  so  often  fall 
to  the  ground  and  are  said  to  make  paving  stones 
for  another  existence — usually  in  this  world. 
Mothers  should  learn  well  the  lesson  taught  both 
here  and  in  Boston,  as  everywhere  else,  that 
official  rules  for  housekeeping  are  not  lived  up  to 
except  under  intelligent  oversight.  This  city  had 
previously  a  set  of  Janitor's  Rules  that  required 
at  least  cleanliness,  but  did  not  secure  it.  It  was 
an  accidental  university  man  that  found  it  out — 
not  the  responsible  mother,  or  father,  of  a  pupil 
in  the  school. 


AND  HEALTH  163 

May 

Dust  again 

A  janitor  whose  salary  is  larger  than  his  princi- 
pal's, whose  floors  we  let  his  own  words  describe 
further  on,  whose  thermometers  registered  74° 
and  82°  when  I  read  them  and,  according  to  the 
teachers,  on  many  other  occasions,  argued  at  a 
meeting  for  discussion  not  long  ago  that  it  is  right 
to  clean  floors  while  school  is  in  session — "Why, 
every  time  a  child  walks  across  the  floor  the  dust 
flies  up.  You  can  see  it." 

The  idea  of  this  official  caretaker  of  children  is 
that  you  have  to  have  dust  anyway,  and  a  little 
more  or  less  is  of  no  consequence — he  choosing 
"more."  We  have  agreed  that  this  is  the  mis- 
fortune, not  the  fault  of  janitors.  It  is  the  fault 
of  parents  and  others  who  provide  no  training 
schools,  nor  qualified  supervisors,  nor  standards  up 
to  which  they  must  work. 

What  amount  of  dust  is  permissible  cannot  be 
determined  by  the  number  of  sweepings — the 
politician's  idea  and  the  average  man's.  The 
housewife  knows  it  depends  on  how  thoroly  the 
work  is  done.  There  are  schools  swept  twice  daily 
that  even  immediately  after  sweeping  are  not  as 
dust  free  as  others  swept  only  twice  a  week. 

We  have  here  the  same  problem  as  in  study  of 
other  conditions  of  air  fit  for  children  and  teachers 
to  live  in,  such  as  temperature,  humidity  and  air 
currents.  We  must  have  a  standard  of  dustiness 


164  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

and  instruments  of  precision  to  measure  it,  to 
which  janitors  must  conform,  instead  of  conform- 
ing to  guesses  and  opinions.  The  mayor  of  a 
small  town  whose  schools  had  been  pronounced 
dirty  by  a  committee  of  gentlemen  claimed: 
"That  is  a  matter  of  opinion.  A  supersensitive 
person  may  think  conditions  untidy,  unclean  and 
therefore  unsanitary,  which  an  ordinarily  sensi- 
tive person  may  consider  as  relatively  tidy,  clean 
and  sanitary."  He  is  quite  right.  Such  a  reply 
will  always  defend  unstandardized  conditions  and 
always  carry  the  "political  machine"  with  the 
maker. 

One  school  committee  proposes  to  solve  the 
dust  and  dirt  difficulty  thru  a  committee  of 
gentlemen  who  at  unannounced  times  once  a  year 
with  pencils  and  printed  blanks  shall  inspect  and 
record  floors,  walls,  ceilings,  windows,  stoves, 
pipes,  transoms,  casings,  desks,  inkwells,  black- 
boards, trimmings,  wainscoting,  supply  lockers, 
cloakrooms,  stairways,  water-closets,  lavatories, 
basements,  general  conditions,  yard.  Their  find- 
ings are  compared,  the  janitor  markt,  and  dis- 
mist,  promoted,  warned  or  otherwise  treated 
accordingly.  He  is  given  a  copy  of  the  report. 
Equally  as  important  are  other  details  of  the 
school  atmosphere  under  janitors'  control;  and 
the  every  day  dust  in  between  annual  visitations 
that  children  have  endured  before  the  janitor 
is  "called  up."  Callings  up  rarely  reform — or 


AND  HEALTH  165 

how  easy  to  make  the  world  over!  The  business 
manager  also  visits  periodically;  but  he,  too,  is 
not  trained  in  sanitation,  nor  housekeeping,  nor 
child  hygiene. 

The  price  of  good  housekeeping  is  daily  and 
even  hourly  supervision,  particularly  where  chil- 
dren are  concerned.  The  best  way  to  assure  this 
frequent  supervision  and  to  keep  certain  vital 
details  up  to  standards  is  to  enlist  the  cooperation 
of  children.  Their  help  will  also  accomplish 
some  other  needed  results. 

Four  years  ago  there  were  very  few  places, 
perhaps  not  five,  but  today  there  are  more,  where 
pupils  are  regularly  enlisted  to  assist  in  school 
sanitation.  Certain  ones  in  the  room  are  ap- 
pointed to  read  the  thermometer  at  each  hour,  or 
at  certain  hours;  to  keep  a  formal  record  of  the 
readings,  possibly  to  make  a  chart  from  hour  to 
hour  or  from  day  to  day,  either  on  paper  for 
permanent  records,  or  on  the  blackboard  for  the 
whole  room  to  have  in  sight,  or  both.  When 
arrangements  permit,  the  reader  turns  on  or  off 
the  heat,  opens  or  shuts  ventilators  or  windows. 
The  appointments  are  changed  from  time  to 
time,  so  that  each  child  can  have  the  educational 
experience  of  the  work  and  of  the  responsibility. 
The  method  has  various  modifications;  and  it  is 
invaluable  as  a  means  of  interesting  and  instruct- 
ing our  future  home  makers,  of  forming  habits 
both  of  thought  and  of  living  that  will  persist. 


166  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

Children  as  young  as  the  fifth  grade  can  learn 
"thermometer  work"  with  a  little  oversight,  per- 
haps younger.  But  the  standardizing  of  school- 
room humidity  probably  belongs  in  no  grade  under 
the  sixth,  unless  as  "helpers."  It  is  entirely 
possible  for  eighth  grade  children  to  manipulate 
and  read  this  hygrometer,  if  taught  by  one  who 
knows,  to  compare  it  with  the  Weather  Bureau's 
tables,  and  to  record  and  chart  the  results.  They 
can  also  learn  to  alter  accordingly  windows,  or 
ventilators,  or  pails  and  tanks  for  evaporation. 
I  have  never  seen  this  done,  but  am  confident  we 
shall  never  "arrive"  in  this  detail  of  school  hygiene 
and  home  hygiene  until  the  children  take  hold. 

They  can  easily  use  anemometers  for  air  cur- 
rents, and  joss  sticks  or  candles  for  currents  too 
slight  to  be  detected  by  the  instrument.  These 
would  be  less  frequent  duties,  but  ideal  devices 
for  effectively  teaching  sanitary  standards.  As 
schools  at  present  are  arranged,  the  "teacher  of 
science"  would  usually  be  the  leader  of  the  work. 
Mothers  must  insist  that  normal  classes  prepare 
them  to  do  it.  As  for  the  children,  they  are  ready. 
They  love  to  have  a  share  in  school  responsibilities. 

In  the  last  important  detail,  dustiness,  an 
instrument  or  a  method  of  precision  and  a  standard 
are  not  so  easy;  or,  rather,  they  that  are  have  not 
yet  been  devised.  The  only  methods  of  measur- 
ing dustiness  that  I  have  seen  are  more  for  the 
laboratory  than  for  children  in  the  schoolroom. 


AND  HEALTH  167 

In  schools  where  physics,  or  chemistry,  or  any 
biologic  science  has  a  laboratory,  certain  of  these 
methods  can  easily  become  a  part  of  pupils'  work 
for  the  school.  In  the  American  Journal  of  Public 
Health^  June,  1910,  is  publisht  The  Report  of  the 
Committee  on  Standard  Methods  for  the  Examina- 
tion of  Air,  signed  by  C.-E.  A.  Winslow,  Ellen  H. 
Richards,  G.  A.  Soper,  J.  Bosley  Thomas,  John 
Weinzirl,  and  followed  by  numerous  references  to 
other  studies.  It  gives  the  latest  best  methods, 
some  of  which  may  be  of  use  to  teachers. 

In  elementary  schools  for  the  present  I  know 
of  nothing  better  for  measuring  dustiness,  and  it  is 
excellent,  than  that  of  a  good  housekeeper — a 
white  or  black  cloth  rubbed  over  surfaces  to  find 
what  can  be  rubbed  off.  If  dust  can  be,  the  good 
housewife  considers  the  work  poorly  done,  and  it 
must  be  done  over.  In  Clean  Schoolhouses  floors 
were  mentioned  that  after  certain  methods  of 
sweeping  did  not  soil  the  white  handkerchief 
past  over  them. 


June 

How  to  do  it 

There  is  a  very  much  better  resource  than 
questionnaires  for  supplying  the  background  of 
information  concerning  what  others  are  doing  and 


168  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

thinking  which  is  needed  to  develop  study  of  local 
conditions  effectively. 

It  is  the  Information  Desk  of  the  Public  Library. 
It  suggests  an  animated  cyclopedia  or,  better,  an 
animated  switchboard,  for  the  attendants  in  a  few 
minutes  connect  one  with  the  best  that  is  written 
and  all  is  thoroly  up  to  date;  health,  school  and 
other  government  reports;  investigations  by 
individuals  and  organizations;  articles  explaining 
and  discussing  almost  any  subject,  scattered  thru 
hundreds  of  periodicals  that  would  take  so  much 
of  one's  own  time  to  search  out  the  task  would  be 
abandoned.  It  is  an  intellectual  instead  of  an 
electric  telephone  service.  The  model  Informa- 
tion Desk  is  in  the  Providence  Public  Library, 
under  Miss  Lyman,  the  successor  of  Miss  Mabel 
Emerson — a  pace-maker. 

When  a  library  has  no  such  department,  the 
librarian  and  his  assistants  sometimes  will  help 
to  material.  Possibly  the  card  catalogue  or 
some  supplementary  catalogues  group  topics  and 
references  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  useful.  Where 
this  fails  in  a  community — thanks  to  Mr.  Carnegie, 
50,000  fewer  fail  today  than  twenty-five  years 
ago — and  when  a  neighboring  city  library  cannot 
be  consulted,  the  publications  by  bureaus  and 
departments  of  the  Government  at  Washington 
can  be  had  from  the  Government  Printing  Office — 
can  be  had  for  the  asking  on  anything  concerning 
the  welfare  of  farm  stock  and  crops  and  other  such 


AND  HEALTH  169 

interesting  and  valuable  national  assets;  but  to 
obtain  information  on  health  matters,  one  must 
buy  the  pamphlets. 

Every  library  should  have  the  annual  Reports 
of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education 
which  will  be  of  use,  and  the  various  Indexes  of 
Periodicals  and  of  other  publications  where 
subjects  and  authors  are  arranged  for  convenient 
following  up.  Most  of  the  references  in  this  book 
also  contain  many  others,  putting  the  reader  on 
the  right  track,  especially  the  next  reference 
given. 

No  schedule  of  points  and  questions  fits  all 
places.  The  most  helpful  compilation  of  good 
questions  and  of  good  authorities  to  consult  is 
probably  by  Dr.  Guy  Montrose  Whipple  of 
Cornell  University,  called  Questions  in  School 
Hygiene,  publisht  by  C.  W.  Bardeen,  Syracuse, 
New  York.  Local  and  new  questions  can  be  ar- 
ranged satisfactorily  by  consulting  this  book  in 
the  public  library. 

It  is  better  to  have  a  short  schedule  directly 
to  the  point,  than  one  of  so  many  details  as  to 
appall  volunteer  helpers.  Those  having  special 
acquaintance  with  local  school  housekeeping, 
perhaps  a  school  nurse  or  teacher  (even  if  an  "ex"), 
can  help  decide  the  really  essential  questions. 

Possibly  the  shortest  schedule  would  be :  Name 
of  school ;  name  of  room ;  date  ;  temperatures 
(as  many  as  can  be  obtained) ;  humidity  (if  it  can 


170  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

be  had);  cleanliness  (windows,  floors,  corridors, 
basement)  and  dustiness;  smells  (rooms,  corridors, 
water-closets,  urinals);  cup;  towel;  washbowls. 

One  could  hardly  do  less  than  this.  One  should 
do  at  least  as  much  as  this,  and  as  much  more  as 
can  be  well  done.  On  other  pages  other  sugges- 
tions are  to  be  found. 

One  of  the  earliest  steps  forward  to  take,  and 
as  it  usually  appeals  to  teachers  it  is  a  compara- 
tively easy  one,  is  to  suggest  the  children's  keep- 
ing systematic  records  of  temperature  as  described 
on  page  165.  Altho  the  practice  has  grown  among 
many  schools  during  the  last  two  or  three  years, 
there  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  rooms  that 
have  not  adopted  it. 

Education  by  memorizing  and  reciting  has  had 
its  day.  The  new  times  call  for  education  by 
doing,  if  the  human  race  is  to  retain  its  capacity 
for  doing — which  is  life.  Parasites — those  who 
are  done  for — are  quickly  done  for,  whether  men 
or  women.  School  is  a  part  of  life,  not  "  prepara- 
tion" only,  and  to  practice  pupils  in  standardiz- 
ing details  affecting  health  means  improving  our 
vital  statistics — the  measure  of  a  nation's  right 
living. 

The  charting  of  temperatures  has  many 
advantages.  One  is  that  more  and  more  books, 
articles,  reports  and  exhibits  chart  facts  because 
it  presents  a  more  telling  picture  of  the  subject 
than  mere  words.  Children  will  profit  much 


AND  HEALTH  171 

more  from  this  new  method  who  have  grown  to 
understand  it  easily  by  charting  temperatures. 
The  chart,  especially  if  a  standing  feature  of  the 
blackboard,  tells  the  hour's,  day's,  week's  story  to 
all  in  the  room,  janitor,  principal,  inspectors  and, 
let  us  hope,  to  parents.  It  fights  the  battle  for 
suitable  temperature. 

Thermometers  should  be  placed,  for  experiment, 
in  different  parts  of  the  room  to  find  whether  they 
read  the  same,  for  often  different  heights  and 
different  walls  vary  several  degrees.  This  inter- 
esting study  leads  to  the  pupils  deciding  on  a 
"fair"  place  for  all,  which  may  be  below  a  gas 
fixture  or  other  point  of  suspension  in  the  middle 
of  the  room.  Let  them  work  it  out. 

A  thermometer  should  be  standardized,  and  the 
pupils  should  do  it,  perhaps  every  month.  This 
is  done  by  taking  it  to  a  place  where  there  is  an 
accurate  thermometer,  possibly  a  physical  or 
chemical  laboratory,  or  a  good  shop  where  instru- 
ments are  sold  or  made,  or  to  the  local  Weather 
Bureau.  When  the  school  thermometer  does 
not  read  like  the  standard  one,  the  pupil  can  learn 
the  difference,  perhaps  one  or  two  degrees,  re- 
port it  back  to  the  school  where  the  children  will 
allow  for  it  in  the  recording  and  charting.  The 
accurate  thermometer  can  be  brought  to  the  school 
and  instruments  in  all  the  rooms  standardized  by 
it.  Let  the  pupils  do  it. 

Paper  lined  into  little  squares  can  be  bought  for 


172  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

making  charts.  Even  better,  the  children  can 
line  plain  paper  vertically  and  horizontally, 
acquiring  resourcefulness  and  accuracy  by  doing 
it.  Pupils  will  make  the  blackboard  charts  them- 
selves— until  someone  patents  blackboards  for 
charting,  like  the  children's  paper  cup,  and  school 
men  buy  them.  A  State  Board  (men)  of  an 
Industrial  (reform)  School  for  Girls  illustrated  the 
beautiful  care  they  were  taking  of  the  girls  by 
telling  how  they  were  planning  to  have  all  the 
bread  making  done  in  a  regular  bakery  in  the 
men's  prison  near  by.  "But — how  will  the  girls 
learn  to  make  it?"  protested  the  "lady  visitors." 
We  are  having  a  strenuous  hunt  for  wholesome 
outlets  for  energy,  pitted  against  the  forces  con- 
straining it  into  factories — or  idleness  and  mis- 
chief. 

After  the  chart  is  lined,  write  across  the  top 
above  each  square  the  hour  when  the  reading  is 
taken,  perhaps  9  a.m.,  10  a.m.,  11  a.m.  (there  may 
be  no  need  of  reading  it  at  noon  if  school  is  dis- 
mist),  1.30  p.m.,  etc.  Down  the  sides  opposite 
each  square  write  the  degrees  from  90°  perhaps  to 
60°.  I  have  never  happened  to  find  a  school 
thermometer  down  to  60°  in  this  country.  In 
England  the  central  Board  of  Education  has 
establisht  60°  as  the  temperature  to  be  required 
in  all  schools.  The  Americans  pleading  for  68° 
hope,  backt  by  the  demonstrations  of  open  air 
schools,  for  something  lower  still  eventually. 


AND  HEALTH  173 

I  have  frequently  found  school  thermometers  in 
the  eighties.  This  will  never  be  so  when  the 
custom  we  are  urging  is  adopted;  nor  will  it  be  so 
in  private  homes  after  school  children  have  the 
right  idea  and  the  right  habit.  All  this  the  women 
of  the  United  States  can  bring  to  pass  by  1915 — if 
they  wish.  Their  responsibility  is  as  infinite  as 
the  immense  waste  of  child  life  is  infinite  loss 
due  to  their  negligence.  Women  might  wisely 
wage  a  campaign  on  library  temperatures,  also, 
public,  college,  university — always  above  70°, 
usually  at  76°,  often  in  the  80's.  The  moral  is— 
don't  put  teachers  in  public  schools  with  university 
and  college  methods. 

The  charting  of  humidity  also  is  necessary  (see 
page  154)  and  can  be  done  by  children  of  the 
eighth  and  seventh  grades,  altho  more  oversight 
by  the  teacher  may  be  called  for.  A  mothers' 
club  can  loan  or  give  to  some  or  all  rooms  the 
necessary  thermometers  and  this  wet-dry  bulb 
thermometer.  The  former  are  not  expensive. 
The  latter  costs  more  (less  than  five  dollars), 
and  one  will  do  for  all  the  rooms  in  a  building, 
being  used  by  a  handle,  and  not  fixt  to  the  wall. 
They  are  sometimes  made  to  hang  on  the  wall  like 
a  dry  bulb  thermometer,  but  for  several  reasons 
they  have  not  proved  reliable.  They  should 
hang  in  a  strong  draft  if  used. 

The  use  of  anemometers  by  children,  supplied 
by  mothers,  one  for  a  building,  is  also  desirable; 


174  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

and  the  simple  dust  test  can  be  used,  but  because 
rather  commonplace  is  not  likely  to  be  so  appealing 
in  a  reform  campaign.  In  this  extremely  impor- 
tant matter  of  dust  unfranchised  mothers  can  do 
little  compared  with  those  in  the  free  states. 

In  the  other  details,  the  battle  is  almost  won 
when  the  pupils  keep  the  records.  Therefore 
persuade  the  schools  to  this,  tactfully,  persistently, 
with  every  resource  at  command;  and,  when 
successful,  follow  up  the  innovation  interestedly — 
just  as  with  children  at  home — seeing  that  instru- 
ments are  correct  and  replaced  promptly  when 
broken,  and  that  records  are  preserved. 


Don'ts 

Don't  send  questionnaires. 

The  first  great  reason  is  because  one  learns  very 
much  more  about  school  housecleaning  by  being 
on  the  spot.  Questions  and  answers  cannot  cover 
all  details,  even  when  answers  are  accurate 
instead  of  "official, "  or  instead  of  being  warped  by 
passing  thru  another  person's  apperception.  No 
one  believes,  for  example,  that  the  Alumnae  would 
have  received  the  facts  they  learned  by  personal 
observation  if  they  had  sent  written  questions  of 
the  kind  they  would  have  askt  had  they  not 
seen  for  themselves.  Many  significant  side 
details  and  side  lights  are  obtained  by  first  hand 
work  that  are  important. 


AND  HEALTH  175 

A  second  good  reason  for  not  sending  question- 
naires is  that  people  are  pestered  with  them,  and 
two-thirds,  representing  so  much  of  the  senders' 
money  and  time,  are  thrown  in  waste  baskets. 
It  would  take  more  than  one  person's  entire  time, 
in  some  instances,  to  reply  to  all  that  are  received, 
beside  the  labor  of  turning  one's  whole  stock  of 
information  upside  down  and  inside  out  searching 
for  the  answers. 

Questionnaires  cannot  in  this  particular  case 
be  accurate,  any  more  than  when  the  maid 
replies  that  she  has  cleaned  the  bathroom  and 
one  discovers  on  inspection  that  ideas  of  cleanli- 
ness differ.  "Arm  chair"  school  housecleaning, 
whether  at  the  official  end  or  at  the  questionnaire 
end,  such  as  most  of  it  in  this  country  has  been,  is 
vanishing  with  the  old  idea  that  women's  organi- 
zations exist  for  their  own  pastime  in  communi- 
ties suffering  for  lack  of  their  intelligent  services. 

Don't  announce  what  is  going  to  be  done. 
One's  own  expectations  as  well  as  the  public's  are 
liable  to  be  chilled  by  disappointments.  Work 
like  this  can  be  accomplisht  very  much  more 
satisfactorily  when  things  are  found  as  they 
ordinarily  are  and  not  as  when  "expecting  com- 
pany." 

Don't  betray  that  "a  chiel's  amang  you  takin' 
notes."  Keep  pencil  and  blank  out  of  sight. 
See  as  much  as  possible  without  asking  questions, 
as  when  one  goes  to  kitchen  or  nursery  to  learn 


176  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

how  the  work  or  the  children  are  progressing. 
Schools  are  public  nurseries  for  mothers'  children, 
and  a  host  of  people  are  paid  to  keep  them  as  safe 
as  in  the  best  kept  homes — safer  if  possible. 

Don't  wander  off  to  related  details — seating, 
window  area,  cubic  feet  of  air  and  number  of 
pupils,  fields  where  so  many  are  already  consum- 
ing energy.  Keep  to  the  single  great  neglected 
department  in  schools — housekeeping — making 
things  as  they  are  as  wholesome  as  they  can  be 
made  for  the  children,  as  mothers  are  obliged  to 
do  in  their  homes.  "  Specialize  "  in  housekeeping. 
Model  buildings  as  well  as  any  other  kind  can  be 
and  they  are  discredited  by  bad  care. 

Don't  spend  time  on  Don'ts.  Suggest,  urge 
if  best,  definite,  correct,  practicable  ideas  for 
making  details  better.  Be  sure  they  are  practica- 
ble and  correct.  Officials,  like  children,  need 
constructive  management. 

And  one  more  Don't:  Don't  exhaust  energy  on 
details  that  are  "matters  of  opinion,"  as  the  mayor 
said,  nor  on  details  of  any  less  consequence  than 
the  right  air  (temperature,  dust,  humidity,  light, 
motion,  open-air-ness)  for  children  to  live  in,  and 
protection  from  fresh  contagious  material  on  cups, 
towels  and  other  furnishings.  Other  housekeep- 
ing improvements  can  follow. 

First,  gather  some  of  the  facts  of  temperature, 
humidity,  air  currents  (by  pupils'  records  if 


AND  HEALTH  177 

possible),  dirty  floors  and  windows  as  compared 
with  those  in  the  home  library  or  kitchen,  and  any 
other  facts  belonging  here  that  are  facts — not 
guesses,  nor  hearsay. 

Second,  have  constructive  suggestions  for 
righting  wrongs,  some  of  which  are  to  be  found  in 
these  pages  and  their  references. 

Third,  after  planning  systematicly  and  doing 
what  the  mothers'  club  can  by  itself,  appeal  to 
related  groups  and  officials  to  cooperate,  as  did  the 
Collegiate  Alumnae.  Appeal  persistently  and 
vigorously  when  necessary,  thru  personal  inter- 
views, newspapers,  organizations.  Meet  official 
delays,  indifference,  false  promises,  incapacity, 
"playing  politics,"  with  steady  strong  pressure- 
stern  if  necessary.  This  is  wholly  a  matter  for 
righteous  indignation  when  so  treated  by  any 
agent  of  government.  Have  an  official  investigat- 
ing committee  appointed  if  desired;  but  continue 
the  original  investigating  even  more  vigorously — 
to  keep  them  moving,  and  moving  to  hygienic 
conclusions  rather  than  Democratic  or  Republican 
or  personal  conclusions. 

Refuse  all  compromises  that  must  be  paid  for 
by  a  child's  life  or  injury.  When  mothers  will 
not  stand  for  the  children,  whom  can  we  expect  to 
do  so? 

DO  IT  NOW — as  the  November  placards  say 
of  Christmas  shopping — for  this  year  more  than 
forty  thousand  children  of  elementary  school 
12 


178  SCHOOL  JANITORS 

ages  (5  to  14)  are  dying,  and  millions  more  are 
being  handicap!  by  ill  health  and  physical 
defects.  Very  much  more  than  half  of  all  this 
can  be  prevented  by  our  available  knowledge,  if 
mothers  and  fathers  worthy  to  be  trusted  with  a 
child's  well-being  really  wish 

IF 

MOTHERS 
SAY  SO 


IV 


PRACTICAL  ASPECTS  OF  BIOLOGIC 
SCIENCE  IN  SCHOOL  ADMINIS- 
TRATION: THE  PROBLEM  OF 
JANITOR  SERVICE* 

(Author's  Abstract) 

The  factor  in  environment  most  completely 
under  control  of  school  authorities  that  most 
affects  efficiency  both  in  school  and  in  later  life 
is  the  schoolhouse  air. 

The  official  who  has  direct  and  continuous 
charge  of  the  air  is  the  janitor.  Its  details  with 
which  janitors  have  to  deal  are  dust,  effluvia  from 
bodies,  temperature,  and  humidity. 

Dust  is  now  recognized  as  a  so  universal  cause 
of  disease  that  the  Bureau  of  the  Census  is  intro- 
ducing a  new  classification,  "occupational  dis- 
eases," one  used  by  England  for  a  century  and 
by  other  foreign  countries  over  fifty  years.  Dust 
injures  more  by  its  irritating  qualities  than  by 
the  pathogenic  organisms  it  contains.  Inorganic 
dust,  such  as  particles  of  metal,  or  stone,  by  irritat- 

*Read  in  the  Department  of  Science  Instruction  and  reprinted 
from  ADDRESSES  AND  PROCEEDINGS,  NATIONAL  EDUCATION  ASSOCIA- 
TION, Boston,  Mass.,  July,  1910 

179 


180  PROBLEM  OF 

ing  the  lining  of  nose,  throat,  bronchial  tubes, 
and  lungs,  prepares  these  tissues  for  the  pathologic 
action  of  micro-organisms;  but  micro-organisms 
of  most  communicable  diseases  are  a  form  of 
delicate  plant  life  easily  destroyed  by  sunlight 
and  drying. 

The  death-rate  from  tuberculosis  is  highest 
among  workers  in  metal,  stone,  pottery,  and  glass. 
It  is  lowest  in  the  country,  where  one  cubic  inch 
of  air  is  said  to  contain  normally  2,000  dust 
particles,  while  in  the  city  it  contains  3,000,000 
made  up  of  dried  manure,  sputum,  house  and  shop 
sweepings,  tobacco,  ashes,  smoke,  iron,  glass  and 
stone  particles,  etc. 

Dust  is  the  commonest  cause  of  colds  in  the 
head,  sore  throat,  bronchitis.  Wind  storms  in 
cities  are  directly  followed  by  increase  of  such 
practice  among  physicians;  and  the  prevalence 
of  catarrh,  to  some  extent  of  sore  eyes  and  adenoid 
conditions,  is  directly  traceable  to  dust  in  streets, 
public  conveyances  and  buildings.  Pus  microbes 
are  practically  always  present  in  such  dust. 

A  nomenclature  of  dust  diseases  is  growing. 
Pneumokoniosis  is  a  disease  of  the  lungs  due  to 
dust  in  general.  Autopsies  show  that  compara- 
tively few  city  dwellers  are  free  from  it.  The  lung 
tissue  is  dark  in  color,  with  fibrous  thickening,  and 
nodules  where  more  or  less  active  inflammatory 
changes  took  place.  In  life  this  was  manifest 
by  susceptibility  to  "colds,"  by  debility  and 


JANITOR  SERVICE  181 

lessened  resistance  to  tuberculosis  and  pneumonia. 
Siderosis  is  due  to  minute  particles  of  iron; 
anthracosis  to  coal  dust;  silicosis  to  sand.  House 
dust  has  more  pathogenic  organisms  because 
closer  to  invalids,  and  less  open  to  fresh  air  and 
sunshine. 

There  is  a  disease  specially  prevalent  among 
those  connected  with  public  schools.  But  we  are 
reluctant  to  admit  that  education  has  an  occupa- 
tional disease. 

Dr.  Oldright,  professor  of  hygiene  at  the 
University  of  Toronto  (see  References),  quotes 
statistics  indicating  that  tuberculosis  is  the  cause 
of  death  more  often  among  teachers  than  among 
workers  in  all  other  fields  together,  i.e.,  the  death- 
rate  of  teachers  from  tuberculosis  is  considerably 
above  the  average  death-rate  from  tuberculosis; 
it  is  higher  than  in  any  other  profession.  This  is 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  women  continue  in  teach- 
ing on  an  average  only  six  years;  men  only  nine; 
also  that  many  resign  before  markt  evidences 
of  ill-health  appear,  and  at  the  time  of  death  may 
not  be  enumerated  as  teachers. 

Reports  in  medical  literature  of  the  last  fifteen 
years  show  that  between  one-third  and  one-half 
of  school  children  have  tuberculosis,  either  active 
or  liable  to  become  so  on  sufficient  irritation  of  the 
air  passages  or  depression  of  general  health  from 
any  cause.  Frequency  of  tuberculosis  gradually 
surpasses  that  of  other  diseases  thru  school  and 


182  PROBLEM  OF 

following  years  until  in  the  prime  of  life  it  is  the 
commonest  cause  of  death. 

These  data  are  based  on  many  thousand 
autopsies  where  children  died  from  diphtheria  and 
other  causes  than  tuberculosis  (whose  existence 
was  not  suspected),  on  X-ray  and  other  delicate 
methods  of  examination,  and  on  reaction  to 
tuberculin  tests.  The  fact  that  so  many  frail 
children  improve  in  open  air  schools  is  suggestive. 

School  fatigue  and  dullness  are  recognized 
accompaniments  of  the  educational  process;  also 
nervous  disorders. 

The  best  cure  of  all  these  ills  is  life  in  the  open. 
The  chief  factor  in  school  life  that  invites  them  is 
school  sanitation.  This  we  leave  to  ignorant  and 
incompetent  caretakers  and  supervisors;  who 
make  no  pretense  of  fitting  for  sanitary  inspection 
or  sanitary  duties ;  who  do  the  best  they  know  with 
knowledge  pickt  up. 

It  is  certain  that  if  in  vocational  or  technical  or 
continuation  or  trade  schools  were  courses  for 
janitors  and  their  superintendents,  intelligent 
interest  and  efficiency  would  be  secured  and  public 
health  improved.  Every  large  city  has  several 
hundred  janitors  of  schools,  apartment  houses, 
office  buildings,  theaters;  as  well  as  Pullman 
porters,  train  and  street-car  conductors,  hotel 
managers.  We  need  to  introduce  educational 
and  health  standards  in  this  important  occupa- 
tion. No  good  home  maker  has  the  dirty  floors 


JANITOR  SERVICE  183 

and  atmosphere  with  which  we  shut  up  children 
and  instructors. 

The  Massachusetts  Civil  Service  Commission 
examines  applicants  for  janitors'  places  in  personal 
record  and  elementary  education,  with  a  few 
questions  on  cleaning,  heating,  ventilating,  and 
lighting.  Engineers'  licenses  are  required  for 
high-pressure  engines  except  where  "policemen's 
safety  valves"  are  used.  The  test  is  much  less 
rigorous  than  that  for  other  offices,  the  reason 
given  being  that  few  eligible  men  apply. 

It  is  the  custom  to  rely  mainly  on  past  service 
for  promotion.  Therefore  the  quality  of  a  jani- 
tor's work  depends  much  on  the  principal,  as 
quality  in  domestic  service  has  long  depended  on 
the  mistress.  The  twentieth  century  is  learning, 
and  finds  it  hard  to  do  so,  that  principalships, 
parenthood,  and  janitorships  do  not  carry  with 
them  innate  capacity  for  the  duties;  that  men's 
and  women's  instincts  as  parents,  principals,  or 
janitors  need  twentieth-century  scientific  infor- 
mation for  efficient  care  of  children. 

They  need  understanding  of  biologic  laws  and 
their  underlying  principles  in  physics  and  chemis- 
try— subjects  in  which  the  great  majority  of 
parents,  principals,  and  janitors  are  little  inter- 
ested, because  in  their  schooling  teachers  of  these 
sciences  made  them  academic  rather  than  vital, 
or  they  had  no  such  teachers.  This  Department 
of  Science  Instruction  holds  the  key  to  school 


184  PROBLEM  OF 

sanitation  as  to  other  problems  of  public  health 
and  morals. 

A  teacher  of  biology  in  the  ninth  grade,  whose 
every  detail  is  directed  to  stamping  pupils'  minds 
with  biologic  laws  common  to  daily  life,  whether 
studied  in  sea- weed  or  bird,  and  who  has  done  it  so 
wisely  for  eight  years  that  now  results  are  coming 
in  from  former  pupils  justifying  departure  from 
collegiate  methods,  said  to  me,  "All  I  adapted  to 
everyday  problems  I  had  to  do  myself.  We  do 
not  get  in  our  biology  courses  anything  about 
human  and  social  biology  to  fit  these  children  for 
living." 

Fortunately  this  instructor  had  enough  initia- 
tive to  adjust  "orthodox"  training  to  these 
important  demands;  but  this  resourcefulness  is 
not  found  as  often  as  needed.  If  principals  and 
others  high  up  show  little  appreciation  of  biologic 
law  in  school  management,  and  allow  little  time 
and  equipment  for  biologic  teaching  and  the 
necessary  physics  and  chemistry,  probably  their 
experiences  are  like  one  of  mine  that  is  rather 
typical.  After  fifteen  minutes  in  a  classroom 
of  thirty  normal  pupils  vaguely  discussing  trap- 
door spiders  and  other  "book  animals,"  the 
principal  justified  the  decision  to  cut  down 
zoology  one-third  and  give  the  time  to  English  by 
saying,  "It  doesn't  seem  to  amount  to  anything." 
The  room  had  scores  of  flies;  the  neighborhood 
mosquitoes,  tuberculosis,  malaria,  and  infant 


JANITOR  SERVICE  185 

mortality;  but  these  fascinatingly  related  topics 
in  civic  zoology  are  commonly  neglected. 

Some  instructors  in  science  create  great  interest 
by  studying  the  immediate  environment;  and 
janitors  who  find  "cultures''  being  made  of  halls, 
rooms,  and  basements  (see  References),  tempera- 
tures charted  day  after  day,  and  class  discussions 
of  conditions,  possibilities,  and  methods,  have 
become  interested.  Some  such  janitors  are 
devising  methods  of  floor-cleaning,  dusting,  and 
ventilating  that  are  unique  and  of  value.  One 
instructor  is  contemplating  a  class  for  janitors 
this  winter. 

We  need  school  data  concerning  dust,  air 
currents,  temperature,  humidity,  and  other  details. 
Science  instructors  are  ideally  situated  to  secure 
them,  and  better  work  for  educating  pupils  in 
sanitation  could  hardly  be  wisht.  We  need  to 
establish  permissible  limits  which  shall  not  be 
exceeded;  to  have  practical  methods  for  testing 
them;  to  have  as  definite  standards  of  sanitation 
as  of  bookwork;  to  train  caretakers  as  we  train 
engineers,  nurses,  librarians. 

We  have  still  lessons  to  learn  from  open  air 
schools;  and  much  between  them  and  the  elabor- 
ate, expensive  systems  at  the  other  extreme,  where 
air  is  sifted  (the  screens  soon  foul  with  dirt),  or 
washt  (the  washings  a  muddy  stream),  heated, 
humidified,  and  sent  at  certain  speed  to  rooms 
whose  windows  must  not  be  opened,  and  where 


186  PROBLEM  OF 

out  of  thirty-two  automatic  heat  regulators  I 
found  twenty-seven  that  "didn't  work/*  In 
about  600  schoolrooms  in  various  cities  I  found 
210  thermometers,  one-third  of  them  out  of  order, 
and  barely  twenty  registering  within  one  of  70 
degrees,  the  others  ranging  from  72  degrees  to  85 
degrees  in  winter  months.  Delicate  children 
improve  in  all  respects  in  outdoor  schools  where 
the  temperature  is  that  of  even  winter.  Tubercu- 
losis is  cured  more  rapidly  in  cold  weather  than  in 
summer.  England  requires  the  schoolroom  to  be 
60  degrees.  If  this  is  too  cold,  it  seems  safer  than 
ours  in  the  seventies,  with  mortality  statistics 
as  they  are. 

Health  maxims  cannot  offset  habits  that  edu- 
cate popular  liking  for  overheating,  and  indiffer- 
ence to  bad  air  and  dust. 

In  a  Cornell  student's  recent  report  on  a 
prominent  school  the  hygrometer  determined 
relative  humidity  24  per  cent,  normal  being  60; 
the  anemometer  found  no  currents  in  ventilating 
flues;  the  Pettersson-Palmqvist  apparatus  showed 
carbon  dioxid  steadily  increasing  from  4  parts  in 
10,000  (normal)  to  24  parts,  i.e.,  the  pupils 
breathed  technically  bad  or  very  bad  air  thru  the 
day.*  The  school,  like  all  in  that  city,  had  printed 
rules  for  the  janitor;  but  absence  of  technical 
training  (janitor),  technical  standards  (school 

*  Determination  of  carbon  dioxid  is  chiefly  of  use  to  indicate  stag- 
nation of  air.  The  dioxid  is  never  in  sufficient  quantities  to  poison. 


JANITOR  SERVICE  187 

board),  technical  supervision  (instructors)  made 
rules  valueless. 

Methods  of  precision  are  as  practicable  and  as 
necessary  for  caretakers  of  a  school  as  for  nurses 
in  a  hospital;  their  routine  practice  is  entirely 
possible  with  reasonable  instruction,  less  instruc- 
tion than  is  given  in  schools  for  nurses  and  for 
domestic  science. 


References : 

The  Schoolroom  as  a  Factor  in  Tuberculosis, 
Dr.  William  Oldright,  Transactions  of  Second 
International  Congress  on  School  Hygiene,  vol. 
II 

The  School  Child  and  Tuberculosis,  Dr.  H.  F. 
Stoll,  Transactions  of  the  National  Association 
for  the  Study  and  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis, 
1910 

Annual  Report  of  the  Civil  Service  Commis- 
sion of  Massachusetts,  1907-1908 

Educational  Prevention,  Emmeline  Moore, 
Transactions  of  American  Association  for 
Study  and  Prevention  of  Infant  Mortality,  1910 

Our  Short  Course  for  Janitors,  W.  D.  Frost, 
Addresses  and  Proceedings,  National  Educa- 
tion Association,  1910 


THE  TRAINING  OF  JANITORS  IN 

SANITARY  CARE  OF  SCHOOL 

PREMISES* 


The  Department  of  Science  Instruction  of  the 
National  Education  Association  during  the  recent 
meeting  at  Boston  appointed  a  committee  of 
three  to  report  on  suitable  methods  of  securing 
sanitary  care  of  school  premises  thru  the  training 
of  janitors.  An  advisory  committee  of  experts 
in  sanitation  is  associated. 

Vital  statistics  of  tuberculosis  among  teachers, 
and  data  from  autopsies,  X-ray  and  tuberculin 
tests  concerning  tuberculous  lesions  among  chil- 
dren are  ample  reasons  in  themselves,  if  there  were 
no  others  as  unfortunately  there  are,  for  training 
competent  caretakers  of  schools,  where  law  com- 
pels children  to  congregate,  and  where  the  coun- 
try's health  habits  and  health  ideals  are  formed. 

Standards  of  school  cleanliness  should  equal 

*Read  before  the  Section  of  Municipal  Health  Officers,  Milwaukee, 
September,  1910,  and  reprinted  from  Journal  of  the  American  Public 
Health  Association,  February,  1911. 

189 


190  TRAINING 

those  of  the  best  hospitals  and  private  homes. 
The  factor  in  school  environment  most  completely 
under  control  of  school  authorities  that  most 
affects  efficiency  both  at  school  and  in  future  life 
is  schoolhouse  air.  The  official  having  direct 
and  continuous  charge  of  the  air  is  the  janitor 
who  has  to  deal  with  details  of  dust,  humidity, 
temperature  and  effluvia.  This  responsibility  is 
given  to  those  who  make  no  pretense  of  fitting 
for  sanitary  duties  or  inspection;  who  do  the  best 
they  know  how  to  do  with  pickt  up  knowledge. 

Teachers  are  usually  expected  to  report  neg- 
lected details  to  the  principal  who  is  nominally 
responsible  for  sanitary  conditions.  All  good 
housekeepers  know  that  such  matters  require 
persistent  following  up  of  the  worker.  Thus  the 
teacher  must  "nag"  the  principal  and  "tell  on" 
the  janitor,  both  usually  men  with  no  train- 
ing beyond  what  unstandardized  experience  has 
given  them.  Teachers  can  hardly  be  blamed  for 
neglecting  this  thankless  task  that  creates  hostility 
and  jeopardizes  their  positions  while  probably 
not  securing  the  results  desired. 

When  janitors  have  the  management  of  high 
pressure  engines,  engineer's  licenses  are  required. 
A  few  cities  have  civil  service  examination  for 
janitors,  chiefly  relating  to  their  common  educa- 
tion and  previous  experience.  Massachusetts  has 
civil  service  examinations  that  in  sanitation  are 
practically  nominal,  as  few  men  eligible  hi  other 


OF  JANITORS  191 

respects  apply,  and  there  are  no  provisions  for 
instruction  in  sanitary  care  of  schools.  In  conse- 
quence the  appointing  of  janitors  from  civil 
service  lists  is  fallen  in  discredit  among  many 
school  officials  who  find  experienced  janitors  more 
satisfactory. 

The  training  and  testing  of  caretakers  of  school 
premises  is,  however,  as  logical  and  imperative 
a  need  as  is  that  of  teachers,  nurses,  librarians, 
drug  clerks;  or  of  housekeepers,  cooks,  and  other 
domestic  workers,  rapidly  coming  to  pass.  It  is 
a  vital  factor  in  problems  of  school  hygiene, 
and  is  likely  to  be  the  most  effective  means  of 
educating  other  school  officers  in  sanitation. 
Salaries  paid  janitors  in  large  cities,  ranging  from 
$700  to  $2,500  and  $3,000,  average  higher  than 
salaries  of  teachers,  post-office  employes,  or  assist- 
ant librarians,  the  formalities  of  whose  appoint- 
ments are  well  known. 

Courses  for  janitors  can  be  introduced  in  trade 
or  technical  schools,  vocational  or  continuation 
schools.  During  the  coming  winter  one  or  more 
biologists,  possibly  other  science  instructors  also, 
and  possibly  one  or  more  boards  of  health  are 
planning  experiments  in  talks,  demonstrations, 
and  other  methods  with  classes  of  janitors. 

Studies  of  schoolhouse  air  show  relative  humid- 
ity often  nearer  20%  than  the  normal  40-70%; 
temperatures  are  more  often  in  the  70's  and  80's 
than  in  the  healthful  60's;  carbon  dioxid,  indicat- 


192  TRAINING 

ing  stagnant  air,  more  often  measures  20  parts  in 
10,000,  i.  e.,  technically  bad  air,  than  the  normal 
4  in  10,000;  anemometers  prove  many  ventilating 
flues  out  of  order  thru  neglect.  Dust,  foul  floors 
and  ah*,  which  are  the  rule,  are  what  no  good 
home  maker  or  hospital  official  would  tolerate. 

Meanwhile  a  very  few  schoolhouses,  even  in 
"soft  coal  cities,"  by  no  means  the  most  expensive 
structures,  have  floors  as  clean  as  the  home  or 
hospital;  a  few  others  are  practically  free  from 
dust;  a  few  others  have  good  air;  a  few  school- 
rooms have  temperature  at  68  degrees  or  below, 
with  red  cheekt  pupils  and  teachers,  who  become 
deprest  and  dull  in  warmer  air  when  it  accident- 
ally exists. 

Such  schools  and  schoolrooms  prove  the  possi- 
bility of  achieving  each  of  these  results  even  in 
buildings  that  are  not  equipt  with  elaborate  and 
expensive  heating  and  ventilating  apparatus  that 
forbids  opening  windows  and  is  frequently  out  of 
order.  Open  air  schools  are  likewise  demonstrat- 
ing the  wholesome  reaction  of  children  to  cool  air 
of  sufficient  humidity  and  comparatively  free 
from  dust  and  smells.  In  them  delicate  children 
invariably  make  more  rapid  progress  mentally  as 
well  as  in  health. 

Among  the  teachers  of  janitors  it  is  desirable 
to  include  instructors  from  schools  for  nurses  and 
domestic  science,  as  the  service  required  is 
technical  and  practical,  to  be  held  to  definite 


OF  JANITORS  193 

standards  which  thus  far  have  been  demonstrated 
in  these  two  lines  of  education.  In  addition, 
health  officers,  biologists,  and  instructors  in 
physics  and  chemistry  can  be  of  service  in  creating 
standards  and  testing  results.  It  is  also  import- 
ant to  secure  the  cooperation  of  these  men  and 
women  in  establishing  classes  for  janitors  on  a 
permanent  basis  in  the  right  educational  institu- 
tions. 

Every  large  city  has  several  hundred  janitors, 
not  of  schools  alone,  but  of  apartment  houses, 
office  buildings,  theaters,  churches  and  entertain- 
ment halls;  also  Pullman  porters,  train  and  street 
car  conductors,  hotel  managers.  With  different 
grades  of  examination  as  in  the  United  States 
postal  service,  this  course  can  be  adapted  to  each 
form  of  custodial  care. 

We  are  seriously  afflicted  by  insanitary  public 
buildings  (including  schools)  and  conveyances. 
The  public  good  demands  that  educational  and 
health  standards  be  introduced  in  these  important 
occupations  that  have  been  mentioned. 

It  is  a  hopeful  sign  that  the  National  Education 
Association  has  taken  a  so  evidently  practical  first 
step  in  school  hygiene.  The  cooperation  of  health 
officials  will  encourage  further  undertakings. 

In  July,  1911,  at  San  Francisco,  a  session  is 

given  to  two  topics:    I.  Assuming  that  schools 

should  be  not  less  wholesome  than  the  best  kept 

homes  from  which  pupils  are  taken:    What  are 

13 


194  TRAINING 

permissible  limits  of  variation  in  sanitary  details 
that  may  be  under  teachers'  advisement  or  con- 
trol (dust,  temperature,  odors,  cleanliness,  light, 
humidity,  for  example)  ?  How  are  such  standards 
determined?  How  are  such  details  to  be  con- 
veniently measured  as  heat  is  measured  by  a 
thermometer?  II.  By  whom  and  how  should 
janitors  be  trained  and  tested  in  sanitary  care  of 
school  premises  ? 


INDEX 


Adenoid  conditions,   12,   97,      Babies,  15,  83.      See  Infant 


180 

Air,  at  home,  12-20,  121 
"blanket,"  151-2 
city  and  country,  12,  67- 

8,  98,  180,  129,  132 
currents,  132,  144,  147. 

See  Anemometer 
motion,  14,  152-4 
open.    See  Open  air 
parent    (very   dry),    13, 

155 

school,  13,  21-7,  28,  32, 
61,  96,  117,  121,  176, 
179,  191-2 
sifted   and   washt,    101, 

185 

See  Dust,  Humidity, 
School,  Temperature, 
Ventilation 

American     Association     for 
Study  and  Prevention  of 
Infant  Mortality,  68,   187 
American    Medical    Associa- 
tion, Journal  of,  159 
American  Public  Health  As- 
sociation,   Journal   of,    68, 
167,  189 
Anemometer,  140, 145-6, 166, 

173 
Aspirating  chimney.        See 

Ventilation 

Association  of  Collegiate  Al- 
umna, 122-141,  158,  162, 
174,  177 
Autopsies.    See  Dust 


mortality 

Bailey,  Prof.  L.  H.,  45 

Basements,  19,  23-26,  68,  77, 
108 

Baths  (internal    cleanliness), 

51 

kinds  of,  28-32,  103 
tonic,  28-30,  42,  149 

Biologic  science,  41,  59,  179- 
187 

Boston.    See  Association  Col- 
legiate Alumnae 

Boston  Health  -  Education 
League,  55 

Breakfast,  42-3 

Brookline  Public  Baths,  31 


Carbon  dioxid,  147-8,  186 
Carriers,  79,  80,  81 
Catarrh,  12.   See  Colds,  Dust, 

Tuberculosis 
Ceilings.     See  Walls 
Chapin,  Dr.  C.  V.,  80,  81 
Charting,  128,  165-6,  170-3, 

185 
Chicago,  mother's  letter,  96, 

101 

United  Charities,  94 
Churches,  105,  108 
Cigarettes,  54-5 
Civil  service,  26, 115, 183, 190 
Clothing,  dirty,    21,    27-30. 

See  Dress 


195 


196 


INDEX 


Colds,  15,  16,  19,  180.      See 
Dust,    Temperature,    Tu- 
berculosis 
Colleges  and  universities,  48, 

50,  63,  143,  173,  184 
Competition  in  play,  51 
Compromises,  177 
Compulsory    school    attend- 
ance, 11,  62,  87,  131,  144, 
189 

Conductors,  street  car,  rail- 
way, 182,  193 
Constipation,  37-42 
Contagions.  See  Dust,  School, 

Tuberculosis 
Cornell      student's      survey, 

143-162,  186-7 
Cost  of    cleanliness,    22,    70, 

96,  102,  134 
of  janitors'  work,  114 
of  school  plant,  98,  104- 

5 

Coughing,  49,  156-7 
Cup,  the     common,     79-85, 
112-3,  157,  159,  176 
paper,  82-5,  161,  172 


Dancing,  41,  51 

Davison,  Prof.  Alvin,  81,  113, 

159 

Dentists,  34-6 
Disease  germs.        See   Cup, 

Dust,  Towel 
Disinfectants,  23,  73,  77, 126- 

7,  139 
Domestic  science.    See  Home 

economics 
Don'ts,  174-6 
Dress,  53,  55-8 
Dust,  bronchitis  and  catarrh, 
composition  and  prev- 
alence,     67-8,     97, 
180 
committee  on,  164 


Dust,  contagions  and 
"germs,"  13,  68,  80- 
2,  139,  148-9,  159, 
176,  180 

data  needed,  185 
diseases,  179-81 
feather  dusters,  23,  25, 

84 
lungs    (autopsies),    97, 

133,  180 

measuring  and  stand- 
ardizing, 163,  166-7 
pupils'       co-operation, 

165,  170,  174 
removal  of,  21,  23,  70, 

71-4,  89,  160,  162 
street,  96-101,  103 
See  also  Floors,  Walls, 
Windows 


Ears.  See  Fatigue,  Streets, 
Teeth 

Engineer's  license,  183,  190 

England,  31,  35,  44,  47,  119, 
133,  179,  186 

Excursioning,  52,  59 

Exercise.  See  Excursioning, 
Gymnastics,  Play,  Vaca- 
tion 

Exhibits,  141 

Eyes,  50,  88,  91-2,  131,  152, 
158-9,  161.  See  Nervous 
system,  Photometer 


Fathers,  59,  62-3,  78,  81,  87, 
111,  130,  138,  158,  178. 
See  also  Parents,  Politi- 
cians 

Feet.  See  Dust,  Shoes,  Ner- 
vous system 

Floors,  16,  21,  22-4,  62,  67- 
77,  86,  125,  126-7,  139-40. 
160,  162-3 


INDEX 


197 


Food,  11.  See  Breakfast, 
Constipation,  Lunches, 
Teeth 

Formaldehyde.  See  Disin- 
fectants 

Frost,  Prof.  W.  D.,  187 

Furnace,  fresh  air  supply, 
16-7,  20,  25-6,  96,  100-1 

Furnishings,  16-7,  21,  96, 
107,  127 


Gaines,  Prof.  Elizabeth,  83 
Games,  41,  51,  86 
Gardening,  24,  41,  52,  53,  59, 

76,  98,  133,  155-6 
Gas,  from  chimneys,  102,  129, 

144 

light,  92,  129-30. 

See  Carbon  dioxid 
Gerhard,  W.  Paul,  31 
Gray,  H.  S.,  55 
Gymnastics,  31,  48-52,  69 


Habits.  See  Cigarettes,  Con- 
stipation, Open  air,  Teeth, 
Sanitation 

Hands,  cleanliness,  79,  107 

Hanger,  G.  W.  W.,  31 

Hill,  Dr.  Leonard,  "Stuffy 
Rooms,"  153 

Home  economics,  27,  41,  44, 
46-7,  63,  192-3 

Home,  the  20th  century,  137- 
9 

Housekeeping,  22,  27,  61,  85, 
96,  103,  114,  123-4,  139, 
145,  165,  176,  190 

Humidity,  13,  15,  151,  154-5, 
166,  173,  186,  190 

Hunt,  Caroline  L.,  45,  46 

Hygrometer.     See  Humidity 


Idleness,  53-4,  58 
Infant    mortality,     117-122, 
124,  139,  185 

Janitors  and  air,  122,  144 

and  biologic  science, 

179-187 
and      examinations, 

26,  183,   193,   194 
and  health,  111-178 
and  methods,  72-5, 

100,  160,  185 
and  politics.        See 
Fathers,       Politi- 
cians 

and  promotion,  183 
and  rules,  124-7,  142 

162,  186 

and  salaries,  27,  65, 
114,  115^6,  191 

and  supervision,  27, 
66,  75,  162,  165, 
182,  187 

and  training  schools, 

27,  114-5,   182-3. 
185-7,  189,  191-3 

untrained,  62-3, 114, 

163,  182,  190 
Johns       Hopkins      Medical 

School  Children's  Hospital, 
77 


Kerosene,  72,  78,  90,  139 
Key-word,  ix,  25,  170 
Kindergartens,  27,  86,  126 
Kipling,  Rudyard,  53 

Lavatories  (Urinals,  Water- 
closets),  23,  77-80,  87,  149, 
158 

Laws,  20,  57,  83,  102-3,  112, 
125,  131,  133,  138,  183-4, 
189 


198 


INDEX 


Legal  responsibility,  74,  79, 
92,  127,  144-5,  160 

Libraries,  32,  45,  46,  68,  80, 
81,  109,  148,  168,  173 

Light.  See  Eyes,  Photom- 
eter, Walls,  Windows 

Linoleum,  70-7,  86,  162 

Lunches,  35,  43-7,  77 

Lungs,  50.  See  Dust,  Con- 
stipation, Gymnastics, 
Swimming 


McKeever,  Prof.  Wm.  A.,  55 
Michigan,  Board  of  Health, 

136 

Mothers,  12,  19,  22,  30,  39, 
59,  62,  101,  111,  137-9, 
145,  159-60 

Mothers'  clubs  and  anemom- 
eters, 146,  166 
clubs  and  baths  and 
swimming  pools, 
30-2 

clubs  and  boards  of 
education,  24,  83, 
114 

clubs     and     clean 
schoolhouses,  61- 
109,  113,  141 
clubs  and  curricu- 
lum, 41 
clubs  and  dentists, 

35-6 
clubs  and  floors,  69 

-77 

clubs     and     home 

economics,  44,  47 

clubs  and  janitor's 

classes,  27 
clubs  and  lunches, 

42-7,  77 

clubs  and  neglect, 
24,  81,  111-4, 
136, 141, 158, 160 


Mothers'  clubs  and  open  air 
and  overheating, 
20,22,26,50,  95, 
148 

clubs  and  programs, 
20,  36,  45,  94,  99, 
113,  141,  143, 
167-74,  176-8 

clubs  and  Pedagogi- 
cal Seminary,  46 

clubs  and  responsi- 
bility, 66,  92,  95, 
119-20,  145 

clubs  and  school 
yards,  102 

clubs  and  social 
centers,  108 

clubs  and  streets, 
99-100 

clubs  and  tubercu- 
losis, 136-7.  See 
Tuberculosis 

clubs  and  vacation 

schools  and  play, 

58-9.      See  Play 

Muscular    system,    57,    91. 

See  Gymnastics 


National  Education  Associa- 
tion, 61,  148,  179,  183,  189, 
193 

Nervous  system,  12,  15,  19, 
28,  33,  37,  50,  57-8,  62,  88, 
91,  121,  131,  152,  182 

New  York  School  Hygiene 
Association,  83 

Normal  schools,  23-4, 66, 112, 
166,  184 

Nurses,  15,  27,  36,  63, 114, 192 


Odors,  13,  20,  22-4,  30,  49, 
62,  72,  75,  78,  106- 
7,  147,  158 


INDEX 


199 


Odors.    See  Baths,  Clothing, 
Gas,  Teeth,  Ventil- 
ation 
Official  cooperation,  122 

committee,  141,  164, 

177 

ignorance,  63,  114, 
135,  137,  142,  144, 
165 

management,  51,  92, 
101,  104,  124,  132, 
146,  176,  184 
Oldright,  Dr.  William,   181, 

187 
Open  air,  12,  14,  26,  51,  59, 

65,  153 
pollution,  133 
schools,  21,  76,  93- 
5,  116,  147,  172, 
182,  185,  192 
sleeping,  17-9 
Osborne,  Lucy  A.,  45 


Packard,  Dr.  Mary  S.,  93 
Parents,  11,  50-3,  54,  71,  121, 

127,    142,    162,    171,    183. 

See      Fathers,      Mothers, 

Mothers'  clubs 
Pasteur,  90 

Pedagogical  Seminary,  45,  160 
Pennsylvania       Board       of 

Health,  141 
Phagocytes,  149 
Photometer,  128-34,  158 
Play,  11,  41,  59,  108;   24,  51, 

68,  102,  140,  143 
Poisons  and  toxins,  33,  37, 51, 

80,  97,  112-45 
Politics,  11-12,  22,  63-4,  78, 

82,  92,  99,  103,  105-7,  114, 

134-6,  163-4,  177 
Principals,  55,  145,  160,  171, 

183,  190 


Providence,  93,  168 
Pullmans,  150,  182 


Questionnaires,  167,  174-5 


"Race  suicide,"  11,  62,  118- 

22,  127 

Reproductive  system,  40,  50 
Richards,  Mrs.  Ellen  H.,  122, 

123,  167 


Sanitation,  specialists  in,  27, 

61,  84,  189 
pupils'     coopera- 
tion in,  165-7, 
170-4 

standards,  143, 
182, 186-7, 190, 
192-3,  194 
schedules  and  sur- 
veys in,  22, 
122-41, 142-62, 
169-70,  176-7, 
191-2 

School  boards,  12,  21,  24,  51- 
2,  63,  66,  71,  82,  83, 
122,  160,  186 
diseases,  11,  62,  108, 

116,  121,  181 
expenses,  22,  70,  102, 
104-5,    114,    123-4, 
134,  146 

fatigue,  11-59,  61,  65, 
86,    91,    111,    131, 
152,  182 
gardens  and  yards,  24, 

41,  76,  98,  101-2 
house-cleaning,  27,61- 

109,  124-7,  192 
hi  suburbs,  24,  76,  98, 
102 


200 


INDEX 


School  janitors,  26-7,  111- 
178,  179-87,  189- 
94 

nurses  and  physicians, 
13,  27,  34-6,  94,  142 
recesses,  24 
visiting,  22,  24,  25,  53 
continuation,       voca- 
tional, etc.,  63,  105, 
182,  191 

See    Dentists,    Social 
centers,     Teachers, 
Ventilation 
Science    teachers,    166,    179, 

185,  189,  193 

Shoes,  21,  56-8,  86,  96,  100 
Skin,  149,  151.  See  Baths 
Sleep,  11,  12,  28,  29,  54. 

See  Open  air 

Smoke,   55,   96,   101-3,    129, 
130,  132-3.    See  Cigarettes 
Social  centers,  104-9 
Standardizing,  115,  125,  129, 
142,    163,    170,    171,    182, 
185,  193-4 

Stone,  Dr.  Ellen  A.,  93 
Street  dust  and  noise,  23,  49, 

96-100.     See  Dust 
Superintendents,   26,   84,   98 
Surgeon-General,  159 
Swimming,  31,  32,  41,  52,  59 
Systems,  25,  26,  49,  55,  101, 
129,  144,  146,  154 


Teachers,  13,  24,  27,  36,  49, 
59,  66,  71,  74,  82,  88,  107, 
112,  115-6,  127,  190.  See 
Science  teachers,  Tubercu- 
losis 

Teeth,  32-6.  See  also  Odors, 
Ventilation 

Temperature,  at  home,  13, 
121,  173 


Temperature,  at  school,  96, 
117,  128-9, 
148-50,  173, 
186 

by  feelings  or 
t  h  e  r  m  o  m- 
eters.15,128, 
171-2 

pupils'  cooper- 
ation, 165- 
6,  170,  173, 
185 

Thermometers,  wet-dry  bulb, 
See  Humidity. 
See  Mothers'  clubs,  Tem- 
perature 

Thermostats,  128,  186 

Towels,  78,  79,  159,  161,  176 

Tuberculosis,  children,  21,  33, 

64-5,  78,  98, 

181,  189 

school    disease, 

78,    86,    108, 

116,121,129, 

155-6,  181-2 

teachers,  21, 64, 

98, 136, 189 
See      Colds, 
Dust,     Open 
air 
Typhoid,  78, 79.    See  Towels 


U.  S.  Bureau  of  Census,  21, 22, 
25,114,115, 
119,  120, 
135,  136, 
139,  142, 
179 

Education,  45, 
79,111,169 
Labor,  31 
Mines,  103 

Government       Printing 
Office,  31,  168 


INDEX 


201 


U.S. Weather  Bureau,    154- 
5,  171 


Vacuum  cleaning,  75,  140 
Ventilation,  14,  21,  23 

aspirating  chim- 
neys, 144,  145, 
160 

systems,  25,  101, 
132,  140,  146 

See  Anemome- 
ters, Tempera- 
ture, Windows 


Walls,  16-7,  21,  85-90,  132 
Whipple,  Dr.  Guy  M.,  169 
Wilson,  H.  M.,  103 


Windows,   16,   17,  25,  90-2, 
102,  128-34,  146,  154,  158, 
161, 185 
Winslow,  Prof.  C.-E.  A.,  68, 

148,  157,  167 
Women  cleaning  school 

houses,  23 
enfranchised,  66,  88, 

119-20,  145,  174 
guilty,  87,  111 
training   for   house- 
keeping, 63 
on  school  boards,  21 
responsibility,       95, 

136,  173,  175 
school  inspectors  and 

supervisors,  27 
See  Mothers'  clubs 
Woodbridge,  Prof.  S.  Homer, 
123 


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